My natural orientation has never been among a community of writers, really. For some reason my social world has always been in the art world.
Rachel KushnerEvery person has a range. In fiction, you get to be it all. Iām as much the men in my book as I am the women. I write how I write and there is no mission to stake a claim.
Rachel KushnerI have spent a lot of time in the art world, and I guess I do listen to how people speak. I'm interested in what they say and how they say it.
Rachel KushnerAs to the "traditional filler of twenty-first century realist fiction," maybe that is something I avoid. I don't relate to standard psychologizing in novels. I don't really believe that the backstory is the story you need. And I don't believe it's more like life to get it - the buildup of "character" through psychological and family history, the whole idea of "knowing what the character wants." People in real life so often do not know what they want. People trick themselves, lie to themselves, fool themselves. It's called survival, and self-mythology.
Rachel Kushner