How can there be so many mothers in the world but so little sense of what it might be to become one? Rachel Cusk More Quotes by Rachel Cusk More Quotes From Rachel Cusk The 'good' mother, with her fixed smile, her rigidity, her goody-goody outlook, her obsession with unnecessary hygiene, is in fact a fool. It is the 'bad' mother, unafraid of a joke and a glass of wine, richly self-expressive, scornful of suburban values, who is, in reality, good. Rachel Cusk wine mother reality As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next. Rachel Cusk skins writing average As it stands, motherhood is a sort of wilderness through which each woman hacks her way, part martyr, part pioneer; a turn of events from which some women derive feelings of heroism, while others experience a sense of exile from the world they knew. Rachel Cusk being-a-mother motherhood feelings The true self seeks release, not constraint. It doesnt 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 musical self want If love is what is held to make us immortal, hatred is the reverse. Rachel Cusk immortal hatred love-is 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 toxic-waste orchids lying An eating disorder epidemic suggests that love and disgust are being jointly marketed, as it were; that wherever the proposition might first have come from, the unacceptability of the female body has been disseminated culturally. Rachel Cusk eating-disorder epidemics female Writing, more than any other art, is indexed to the worthiness of the self because it is identified in peoples minds with emotion. Rachel Cusk self writing art That's writing for you: when you make space for passion, it doesn't turn up. Rachel Cusk passion space writing I remain fascinated by where you go as a woman once you are a mother, and if you ever come back. Rachel Cusk fascinated ifs mother I have absolutely no concept of work, except for university. But I like to talk to people a lot about their jobs. Rachel Cusk university jobs people The creativity of childhood was often surrendered amid feelings of unworthiness. So the idea that others are demanding to be given it back - to be "taught" - is disturbing. Rachel Cusk childhood creativity ideas 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 black community thinking The anorexic body is held in the grip of will alone; its meaning is far from stable. What it says - 'Notice me, feed me, mother me' - is not what it means, for such attentions constitute an agonising test of that will, and also threaten to return the body to the dreaded 'normality' it has been such ecstasy to escape. Rachel Cusk mother attention mean 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 events new-relationship may A creative writing workshop will contain students whose ambitions and abilities, whose conceptions of literature itself, are so diverse that what they have in common - the desire to write - could almost be considered meaningless. Rachel Cusk creative ambition writing 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 lonely reading children 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 tongue mother world There are certain types of slightly hysterical human characters who, rather than creating, walk around with a sense of their own potential - it's as if they themselves were art objects. They feel as if their lives are written narratives, or pieces of music. Rachel Cusk creating character art 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 children people firsts
