American - Writer | 1968 -
Art is about play and about transcendent meanings, not reducible to politics.
Rachel Kushner
ArtPoliticsPlayMeaningsAbout
I am occasionally enraptured by Western landscape. But I don't identify that state of mind as having to do with my own origins, having grown up in the West, although I certainly crisscrossed Nevada countless times growing up, and then as a young adult, in cars and on motorcycles.
I AmMindGrowing UpLandscapeYoung
I was very precocious when I was young. I went to college at 16, and I graduated at 20. I wanted to be a writer, but I was more interested in experience than in applying myself intellectually.
MyselfExperienceCollegeYoungMore
I didn't do a masters in creative writing until I was 26, which is quite old, and then I found myself in New York and I needed money, so I started working full time as an editor.
TimeMyselfMoneyCreativeNew York
Eventually, I decided that if I was going to really write a novel, I couldn't do it in New York City while holding down a job. You need a constant money source to live in New York City unless you're independently wealthy, which I'm not.
LiveMoneyJobNew YorkCityYou
I am not a sun person at all. I think it's a cancerous poison and I don't want it touching me.
I AmSunMeThinkPersonWant
It's really a misconception to identify the writer with the main character, given that the author creates all the characters in the book. In certain ways, I'm every character.
CharacterBookWriterIdentifyEvery
My mother told me many stories about her childhood in Cuba. Living there had a profound impact on her and how she regards herself.
MotherChildhoodMeImpactLiving
Writing a first novel was an arduous crash course. I learned so much in the six years it took me to write it, mostly technical things pertaining to craft.
MeWritingWriteCraftFirstYears
Danzon is my favorite Cuban music, played by a traditional string orchestra with flute and piano. It's very formally structured but romantic music, which derives from the French-Haitian contradance.
MusicRomanticOrchestraPianoCuban
Story and plot, not historical facts, are the engine of a novel, but I was committed to working through the grain of actual history and coming to something, an overall effect, which approximated truth.
TruthHistoryStoryFactsHistorical
Like most writers, I've read a lot of Hemingway, and I admire him greatly.
AdmireHimLikeReadMostLot
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Rachel Kushner quotes