36 Rachel Cusk Quotes for You to Enjoy

Rachel Cusk

Canadian Novelist

Born: Feb 8, 1967

Life Me People Woman Writing You

Related authors: Claire Cameron David Bergen Joy Fielding Margaret Atwood Mordecai Richler Robertson Davies Ruth Ozeki

There is always shame in the creation of an expressive work, whether it's a book or a clay pot. Every artist worries about how they will be seen by others through their work. When you create, you aspire to do justice to yourself, to remake yourself, and there is always the fear that you will expose the very thing that you hoped to transform. Rachel Cusk

Work You Justice Yourself Book Fear Will Seen Creation Every Others Worries Hoped About Pot Clay Shame Remake Through Always How Very Artist Transform Whether Create Aspire Expose Expressive Thing

The true self seeks release, not constraint. It doesn't want to be corseted in a sonnet or made to learn a system of musical notations. It wants liberation, which is why very often it fastens on the novel, for the novel seems spacious, undefined, free. Rachel Cusk

The distinctive feature of my family was intolerance of sensitivity and emotion - 'Everything's great, it all has to be great all the time and why do you have to spoil it?' Whereas probably the most fundamental and important thing to me has been defending my right to tell the truth about how I feel. Rachel Cusk

Truth Time Great Family Me You Important Everything Distinctive Intolerance Tell Has-Been About Feature Emotion Spoil Feel Most How Important Thing Been Whereas Sensitivity Fundamental Why Right Thing Defending

Parenthood, like death, is an event for which it is nearly impossible to be prepared. It brings you into a new relationship with the fact of your own existence, a relationship in which one may be rendered helpless. Rachel Cusk

Society in the English countryside is still strangely, quaintly divided. If black comedy and a certain type of social commentary are what you want, I think English rural communities offer quite a lot of material. Rachel Cusk

You Comedy Black Think Society Type Black Comedy Rural Divided Countryside Material Still Lot Commentary Offer Quite Quite A Lot Want Social Certain Communities Strangely English English Countryside

You could time a suburban story by your watch: it lasts as long as it takes a small furry animal that's lonely to find friends, or a small furry animal that's lost to find its parents; it lasts as long as a quick avowal of love; it lasts precisely as long as the average parent is disposed on a Tuesday night to spend reading aloud to children. Rachel Cusk

Love Time You Animal Lonely Long Parents Reading Lost Lasts Spend Furry Find Parent Small Could Takes Aloud Quick Friends Precisely Tuesday Tuesday Night Children Story Suburban Average Your Watch Night

Hope is like one of those orchids that grows around toxic waste: lovely in itself - and an assertion, if you like, of indefatigable good - but a sure sign that something nasty lies underneath. Rachel Cusk

Hope Good You Those Sign Lies Something Like Toxic Underneath Sure Sure Sign Around Nasty Itself Lovely Assertion Waste Grows

I don't go to church any more, but I think that Catholicism is rather like the brand they use on cattle: I feel so formed in that Catholic mould that I don't think I could adopt any other form of spirituality. I still get feelings of consolation about churches. Rachel Cusk

Church Spirituality Feelings Think Other Churches Consolation About Adopt Rather More Could Feel Like Catholic Catholicism Cattle Still Go Mould Brand Get Any Form Formed Use

I'm a novelist, not a social scientist or a commentator. Rachel Cusk

Scientist Commentator Social Novelist

The old world of England was picturesque and safe in a way that L.A. wasn't, but it was so amazingly socially cruel. I had never experienced that in America - never in school, nowhere. Rachel Cusk

World School Old Way Never Had Cruel Picturesque Safe Amazingly America Experienced England Old World Nowhere Socially

I don't think I knew that you could be a novelist. I think a lot of my students are in the same condition. I thought it was unreachable, that it was sort of dead people. It took me a long time - I think I was well into novel writing before I really thought, 'Actually, this is a valid pastime.' Rachel Cusk

Time Me You People Writing Thought Long Long Time Before Think Took Valid Unreachable Could Students Knew Dead Well Dead People Sort Condition Lot Pastime Same Really Novel Novelist Actually

The reaction to 'Aftermath' has been far worse than to 'A Life's Work,' yet I find I'm perhaps a little less touched by it. In both cases, I've coped artistically by believing the criticisms weren't right. They upset me, but they didn't challenge my understanding of how to write, nor of how morality functions in literature. Rachel Cusk

Life Work Me Challenge Understanding Worse Has-Been Criticisms Find Morality Cases Touched Both Write Perhaps Reaction How Were Been Nor Than Upset Aftermath Literature Little Far Less Functions Believing Right

I have some pretty forceful ideas about the world - obviously I do. But I suppose I can only really speak about them from within the protection of a literary form. Rachel Cusk

Speak World Protection Some Pretty About Only Suppose Ideas Obviously Forceful Within Form Literary Them Really

A feminist man is a bit like a vegetarian: it's the humanitarian principle he's defending, I suppose. Rachel Cusk

Man Bit Vegetarian He Suppose Like Principle Feminist Humanitarian Defending

I am a good and interested mother - which has surprised me. Rachel Cusk

Good Me Mother Am Surprised Which Interested

Some people are better at maths than others: no one thinks you can be 'taught' to be a mathematical genius. And no one thinks of teaching, in that context, as a kind of forcing of the will. But there seems to be an idea of writing as an intuitive pastime which is being dishonestly subjected to counterintuitive methods. Rachel Cusk

You People Writing Genius Better Will Some People Forcing Others Kind Intuitive Some Seems No-One Idea Context Methods Mathematical Subjected Maths Pastime Than Taught Being Which Teaching Thinks