Rachel Cusk Quotes

I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.

The same way that some people can play the piano, I can do plots! They just come!

Some people are born with a brain that has this weird, magical mathematical thing that makes them an amazing jazz musician.

I have always been able to write on the spot. It is a talent that I guess comes naturally.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it's all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Poesy must not be drawn by the ears: it must be gently led, or rather, it must lead, which was partly the cause that made the ancient learned affirm it was a divine, and no human skill, since all other knowledges lie ready for any that have strength of wit; a poet no industry can make, if his own genius be not carried into it.

You can't teach somebody how to be a good writer.

High achievers, we imagine, were wired for greatness from birth. But then you have to wonder why, over time, natural talent seems to ignite in some people and dim in others.

It is a natural gift I was born with but it's something I've had to nurture in training.

When I began to be published, people got the idea that I should 'teach writing,' which I have no idea how to do and don't really believe in.

Mozart was born Mozart. Charlie Parker was born Charlie Parker.

And writing I think is a gift that you have, the same as acting, in a way.

If when we are taught English we are just taught the rules of grammar, it would take all our love of our language away from us. What makes us love a subject like English is when we learn all these fantastic stories. Feeding the imagination is what makes a subject come alive.

The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn't. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice - by work.

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!

Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

I take a real interest in the possibilities of teaching - including the practice of bringing creative writing, and serious reading, into the classroom. I am persuaded that since language is alive, much of the challenge has already been met by the poets and novelists we read.

I think you can get better in mathematics on a school level, but when you're talking about being a mathematician, I think that's definitely a gift of genes or whatever, you know? Whatever your pool is.

Good acting is good acting, however you learn it. Some people who haven't studied are amazing. Some people like Leonardo DiCaprio are naturally gifted - he's learned technique by working with people early on.

Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.

English of course is your major tool, but it is not nearly so important as other aspects of writing for example you have to have some natural ability you can't buy it no one puts it there you're born with it.

One doesn't choose to become a writer. One is just born that way.

I think it is an inborn talent - just luck. Some people can learn languages; some can throw a ball. Most people have something. My talent is drawing and painting.

A lot of people ask me, 'Are you born a writer?' And I don't think it's necessarily true. I just think what you either have or you don't is this ability to see something that's complex and worth talking about.

Poets are born, not paid.