Under the Net

by Iris Murdoch

Subtle people, like myself, can see too much ever to give a straight answer.

I looked upon the face that I had known so well and now that for the first time I saw its beauty as mortal I felt that I had never loved it so dearly.

The activity of translating, which had seemed the plainest thing in the world, turned out to be an act so complex and extraordinary that it was puzzling to see how any human being could perform it.

It occurred to me that if this book were a success, which I couldn’t doubt, this might smooth my way considerably in the literary world. It’s easier to sell junk when you’re known than works of genius when you’re unknown.

‘Now, are you a socialist?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Certain?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Good. Mind you, we don’t yet know what this means, but so far so good.

The quenching of thirst is so exquisite a pleasure that it is a scandal that no amount of ingenuity can prolong it.

I was taught diaphragmatic breathing by a Japanese who claimed that it had transformed his life, and although I cannot say that it has transformed mine, I can recommend it as being harmless and conceivably beneficial, particularly for someone who is as suggestible as I am.

‘I want to have things clear,’ I said. ‘You’re offering me a sinecure.’ ‘I’m not sure what that is,’ said Madge, ‘but I expect it’s that.’ ‘A sinecure is when you get money for doing nothing,’ I said. ‘But isn’t that exactly what you’ve always wanted?’ said Madge.

as I walked a great truth became apparent to me. Nothing in the world was more important than money. Why had I not understood this before? Madge had been right when she had said that it was real life. It was the one thing needful; and I had rejected it. I felt like Judas.

There is something compelling about the sound of a fountain in a deserted place. It murmurs about what things do when no one watches them. It is the hearing of an unheard sound.

With the nurses, who were mainly young Irish girls without a thought in their heads, unless obsession with matrimony may be called a thought, I immediately got on very well.