The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five Quotes

“We Chroniclers do well to be afraid when we approach those parts of our
histories (our natures) that deal with evil, the depraved, the
benighted. Describing, we become. We even - and I've see it and have
shuddered - summon. The most innocent of poets can write of ugliness
and forces he has done no more than speculate about - and bring them
into his life. I tell you, I've seen it, watched it...”
― Doris Lessing, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five

“What are all these guises, aspects, presentations? Only manifestations of what we all are at different times, according to how these needs are pulled out of us. I write in these bald words the deepest lessons of my life, the truest substance of what I have learned. I am not only a Chronicler of Zone Three, or only partially, for I also share in Al-Ith's condition of being ruler insofar as I can write of her, describe her. I am woman with her (though I am man) as I write of her femaleness - and Dabeeb's. I am Ben Ata when I summon him into my mind and try to make him real. I am...what I am at the moment I am that...”
― Doris Lessing, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five