Rachel Cusk Quotes

I used to think that when I finished a book, I was finished with it. But it's like a wonderful Hydra. Every time a head disappears, more heads appear, so I will be writing for the rest of my life. The more books I write, the more books I find that I still have to write about. I use it like an inspiration, and that's wonderful.

The second album was emotionally exhausting and my life felt like it had become very serious at a very young age.

I have a lot of respect for people who write a whole book because I've heard it will kill you.

I took the longest showers of my life after every time I visited Gramacho. It affects the personality of the catadores. They always dress really well, they're very sharp, and when they go out they always wear a lot of perfume because they're very conscious of the possibility of having the smell.

Burnout is grist to the mill. I write every day, for most of the day, so it's just about turning into metaphor whatever's going on in my life, in the world, and in my head. Every nightmare, every moment of grief or joy or failure, is a moment I can convert into cash via words.

Health-wise, I couldn't have said what my life expectancy would've been if I'd just carried on doing solid blocks of stand-up.

Every time I get through the work on a book of nonfiction, I say I'll never do it again; it takes so much out of you.

I need therapy after writing. It's like leaking blood from a stone. It's brutally difficult but worth it.

When you write a book, you are asking someone to make an investment in their time and money. A column can come and go as the weeks pass, but a book needs to be timeless.

With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

Lack of time is a real health killer.

I am very proud of what 'Johnny' achieved in stand-up comedy because he believed entirely in giving an audience the best kick he could. But he was someone who was quite detrimental to my health, both emotionally and physically.

There's pressure to come up with something genius every time. I feel like I keep letting myself down with my Twitter posts. I have to start keeping a journal of rough drafts of prophetic ideas about the world.

We manage the fear, I manage the fear, but it certainly takes its toll, the strain does.

I'm not around real dead people all that often - most people aren't - but when you are, you tend to be very, very respectful and quiet, and people do tend to whisper 'cause you're trying to show massive amounts of respect, but if this is your daily life, you have to figure out a way to go about it and not go insane by the time you reach Friday.

I am persuaded that every time a man smiles - but much more so when he laughs - it adds something to this fragment of life.

I was making comebacks every single year. That makes it difficult mentally. It causes a lot of stress.

I have friends who hide in their bedroom for three days every time they have another birthday. That's what brings the wrinkles! I didn't care when I turned 30 or 40 or 50.

Typically, a book takes me about a year to write.

Every time you get angry, you poison your own system.

I think everything is going to be devastatingly sad - when the phone rings, I know somebody in my family's been hurt, somebody's going to die. I'm sure a therapist would go, 'That's not a good way to live,' but every time it's not that bad thing, I'm so thankful and appreciative.

A lot of sad stories in a row - that wears on you.

The idea that every time you do a film you're supposed to be tortured confuses me. I mean, guys who say, 'Oh, it's really tough, my character is really suffering' -come on. For us, even in the rotten ones we've had a good time. I don't think you have to suffer.

Every kind of book I've written has been written in a different way. There has not been any set time for writing, any set way, I haven't re-invented the process every time but I almost have.