Reporter: "Doris Lessing, you just won the Nobel Prize in Literature. What are you going to do next?"
Lessing: "I'm going to do my best impression of V.S. Naipaul, of course. We Nobel winners need to be a little cantankerous."
MADRID, Spain — Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were "not that terrible" when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain.
"September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible," the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.[Link]
Let me get this straight, Doris: It was terrible, but it wasn't that terrible. On a scale of 1 to 10, you'd give it a 6 for terribleness -- on par with eating liver 'n onions.
"Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she said in an interview published Sunday. [Link]
Yeah, there's nothing extraordinary about planes being flown into buildings, Doris. Now Britney Spears appearing in public with all her clothes on -- that's extraordinary!
In the El Pais interview, Lessing had sharp words for both President Bush and his ally, former British premier Tony Blair.
"I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning," El Pais quoted Lessing as saying. "Many of us hated Tony Blair, I think he has been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years. I said it when he was elected: This man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems and he did." [Link]
Tell us what you really think of Tony Blair, Doris. Don't hold back.
"As for Bush, he's a world calamity," added Lessing. "Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars." [Link]
Let me get this straight, Doris: Blair was a disaster, Bush is a calamity. On a scale of 1 to 10, you'd give them a 9 for terribleness -- on par with having hemorrhoids.
Iran also came in for a lashing from Lessing, who was born to British parents who were living in what is now Bakhtaran, Iran.
"I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government, it's a cruel and evil government," she was quoted as saying. [Link]
Reporter: "How do you feel about North Korea, Doris?"
Lessing: "Hate it."
Reporter: "What about Libya?"
Lessing: "Hate it."
Reporter: "And Turkey?"
Lessing: "Ate it."
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