Rachel Kushner Quotes

Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination, we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family, society and state in which we live.

We are fashioned not by our genes, but by our environment - by the family and socio-historic conditions in which we evolve.

We're all functions of our societies, right? And we all become who we are because of the invisible forces that mold us.

I do want to write about social/cultural/historical context. I'm interested in relationships, in character, but within a specific social context. Which is kind of a political thing, I admit that. But it's what I'm interested in, and it's how I believe human behavior is legible.

Of necessity, the autobiographical self is not just about one individual but about all the others that an individual interacts with. Of necessity, it incorporates the culture in which the interactions took place.

History is present in all my novels. And whether I am directly talking about the sociological moment or just immersing my character in the environment, I am very aware of it.

It's inevitable your environment will influence what you do.

I'm also fascinated by the interplay between personal history and the larger forces that form the context for our lives.

I really do believe in the influence of your surroundings.

Situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more so that we recognize or acknowledge.

Genes cannot tell us how to catalogue or comprehend human diversity. Environments can, cultures can, geographies can, histories can.

I always had an interest in seeing people within their environments.

Multiple characters' opinions on societal roles, as well as their perceptions of themselves and others, help me lose myself in whatever strange and wonderful setting I'm reading about.

I'm more into human nature than politics. But they're intertwined. Obviously, I live in civilization, so politics are part of my life.

Any theory intended to describe and analyze socio-historical reality cannot restrict itself to the human spirit and disregard the totality of human nature.

Man is a child of his environment.

Personality and socialization aren't the same thing.

I've always been interested in the relationship between total external surround, culture, the political matrix, technology, etc., and the internal human consciousness.

Every life of a character is within a context. If I write detached from a social and political background, my story looks like a soap opera where everybody is indoors, not working and living off their emotions.

I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external, the kind of fiction that Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.'

I am affected by what is around. I don't think many people would admit that.

Most social acts have to be understood in their setting and lose meaning if isolated... No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function.

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

No matter what you experience in life, it incorporates political tendencies, and in so many ways.

We are such a product of our upbringing and environment.