I’m very interested in the idea of a large group of people who come together quite suddenly, but not illogically, for reasons that could not have been anticipated. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
Artists are political in the sense that they’ve subtracted themselves from the structure of the marketplace and are contributing something that’s not utilitarian. Even though books get sold, and I get advances, I get to look at society and think for a living. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
I get the feeling that people from outside the world of contemporary art see it as deserving of mockery, in an emperor’s-new-clothes sort of way. I think that’s not right and that it’s just because they don’t understand the discourse. The art world is filled with vibrancy. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
If a writer is always trying to keep a narrator emitting a tone of complete knowingness, it can become false. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
At home, I dedicate occasional whole days to reading as if I’m a convalescent. The ideal place for this is the bath, where the body floats free. Books go a little wavy, but they’re mine, so who cares. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
I write the novels that are possible for me to write, not that ones I think will come across in a certain light. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
When one is the type of writer who cares about the meaning of the historically specific setting, the history itself is not something that I would call backdrop. It’s not window dressing for a timeless relationship about love and betrayal. For me, the setting and the specific history are active co-agents with me in trying to form the novel. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
I don’t start with a list of historical scenes that I want to include in the book. At a certain point, the narrative totally takes over, and everything that I include I can only incorporate if it answers to the internal terms of the novel. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
I’m a kind person; I don’t have a really nihilist streak in me, but I respond to that kind of humour. Rachel Kushner Read Quote
