To become a mother is to learn a whole language - to relearn it, perhaps, as it was the tongue to which we were born - and hence gain entrance to a forgotten world of comprehension. Rachel Cusk More Quotes by Rachel Cusk More Quotes From Rachel Cusk I don't really believe in stories, only in the people who tell them. Rachel Cusk stories believe people Modern morality is all about perception. Rachel Cusk modern morality perception I am a good and interested mother - which has surprised me. Rachel Cusk mother I suppose, I said, it is one definition of love, the belief in something that only the two of you can see. Rachel Cusk definitions belief two A sentence is born into this world neither good nor bad, and that to establish its character is a question of the subtlest possible adjustments, a process of intuition to which exaggeration and force are fatal. Rachel Cusk intuition character world Reality might be described as the eternal equipoise of positive and negative. Rachel Cusk might reality negative What I increasingly felt, in marriage and in motherhood, was that to live as a woman and to live as a feminist were two different and possibly irreconcilable things. Rachel Cusk motherhood feminist two I felt that I could swim for miles, out into the ocean: a desire for freedom, an impulse to move, tugged at me as though it were a thread fastened to my chest. It was an impulse I knew well, and I had learned that it was not the summons from a larger world I used to believe it to be. It was simply a desire to escape from what I had. Rachel Cusk ocean believe moving People are least aware of others when demonstrating their own power over them. Rachel Cusk demonstrating people I was aware, in those early days of motherhood, that my behaviour was strange to the people who knew me well. It was as though I had been brainwashed, taken over by a cult religion. And yet this cult, motherhood, was not a place where I could actually live. Like any cult, it demanded a complete surrender of identity to belong to it. Rachel Cusk motherhood taken people Leaving things behind and starting again is a way of coping with difficulties. I learnt very early in my life that I was able to leave a place and still remain myself. Rachel Cusk leaving able way It is interesting how keen people are for you to do something they would never dream of doing themselves, how enthusiasticall y they drive you to your own destruction. Rachel Cusk dream people interesting 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 artist justice book 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 catholic feelings thinking My children are living, thinking human beings. It isn't in my power to regret them, for they belong to themselves. Rachel Cusk regret children thinking The British have always made terrible parents. Rachel Cusk british parent made Shame is something you'll find a lot of - particularly Catholic - girls feel about their bodies, about their sexuality, about their diet, about anything you like. Shame is the way you keep them down. That's the way to crush a girl. Rachel Cusk crush catholic girl Human beings have a need, generally, to destroy things. The Freudian principle of civilisation is correct. There's always, always a difference between the family image and the reality. Rachel Cusk differences principles reality I have no sense of a model or predecessor when I write a memoir: For me, the form exists as a method of processing material that retains too many connections to life to be approached strictly and aesthetically. A memoir is a risk, a one-off, a bastard child. Rachel Cusk risk writing children In domestic life the woman's value is inherent, unquantifiable; at home she exchanges proven values for mythological ones. She "wants" to be at home, and because she is a woman she's allowed to want it. This desire is her mystique, it is both what enables her to domesticate herself and what disempowers her. Rachel Cusk want desire home
