I'm a novelist, not a social scientist or a commentator. Rachel Cusk More Quotes by Rachel Cusk More Quotes From Rachel Cusk Having your second child, in case you were wondering, is a lot harder than having your first, except for those people who find it easier. I'm afraid I don't have the latest figures to confirm this. Rachel Cusk childrenpeoplefirsts 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 emotionimportantfundamentals What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer? Rachel Cusk jobs We who were born were not witnesses to our birth: like death, it is something we are forever after trying to catch sight of. Rachel Cusk sightforevertrying Honest criticism, I suppose, has its place. But honest writing is infinitely more valuable. Rachel Cusk honestcriticismwriting Hope is one of those no-win-no-fee things, and although it needs some encouragement to survive, its existence doesn't necessarily prove anything. Rachel Cusk encouragementwinningneeds Help is dangerous because it exists outside the human economy: the only payment for help is gratitude. Rachel Cusk economygratitudehelping For me, a novel is always the result of my attempt to impose myself on raw circumstances. It is a concrete form of lived experience. Rachel Cusk resultsformcircumstances Feminism remains something that needs to be explained to people. Rachel Cusk feminismpeopleneeds Every time I write a book, I've probably taken five years off my life. Rachel Cusk takenwritingbook Even if they knew the truth of their own feelings, most mothers would be socially and emotionally incapable of revealing it. Rachel Cusk would-bemotherfeelings Childhood, after all, is not an ending, but rather a state full of potent curiosity. Rachel Cusk childhoodstatescuriosity Christianity has kept itself going for centuries on hope alone, and has perpetrated all manner of naughtiness in the meantime. Rachel Cusk centurychristianity A feminist man is a bit like a vegetarian: it's the humanitarian principle he's defending, I suppose. Rachel Cusk feministprinciplesmen I absolutely don't dislike children - I would choose their company over adult company any time. Rachel Cusk companyadultschildren It is living, not thinking, as a feminist that has become the challenge. Rachel Cusk motivationalinspirationalthinking It's a pretty brutal process, having a baby. Rachel Cusk having-a-babyprocessbaby I'm waiting for the day when my children cease to find my domestic propriety reassuring and actually find it annoying. Rachel Cusk annoyingwaitingchildren The woman who thinks she can choose femininity, can toy with it like the social drinker toys with wine - well, she's asking for it, asking to be undone, devoured, asking to spend her life perpetrating a new fraud, manufacturing a new fake identity, only this time it's her equality that's fake. Rachel Cusk fakewinethinking Like the child, the creative writing student is posited as a centre of vulnerable creativity, needful of attention and authority. Rachel Cusk creativitywritingchildren
