Muriel Spark

"All my pupils are the crme de la crme. Give me a girl of an impressionable age, and she is mine for life. "

"Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. "

"Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and the dying as on a battlefield. "

"No mind should submit their mind to another mind He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still -- that's my motto. I won't be brainwashed. "

"One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must live it to the full. "

"Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life. "