Quote by: Muriel Spark

If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.


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Author Bio


  • NameMuriel Spark
  • DescriptionScottish writer
  • AliasesMuriel Sarah Camberg
  • BornFebruary 1, 1918
  • DiedApril 13, 2006
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet; Novelist; Playwright; Editor
  • WorksThe Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie; The Mandelbaum Gate; The Driver's Seat; Memento Mori; The Comforters; The Ballad Of Peckham Rye; The Bachelors; The Girls Of Slender Means; The Public Image; The Takeover; Territorial Rights; Loitering With Intent; A Far Cry From Kensington; Symposium; Aiding And Abetting; The Finishing School
  • AwardsDame Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire; James Tait Black Memorial Prize