Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Claude Cahun is a fascinating artist - one of the few women to be part of the surrealist movement, she and her partner Suzanne Malherbe took on men's names and made artworks that investigated female identity long before 'The Second Sex' or Cindy Sherman. "

Naomi Alderman

Identity

Women

Long

Related Quotes:

" When I was 19, I wrote a novel, which was not very good, but I finished it. "

" I really hope that men read 'The Power' and watch 'The Handmaid's Tale' and read 'The Handmaid's Tale.' "

" Computer games can be works of art and literature - they're still developing. The stories they can tell, and the experiences they provide, are increasingly sophisticated and glorious. "

" Our culture tends to denigrate things that are associated with women. It's OK for women to wear trousers, for example, but not OK for men to wear skirts. "

" I wish that positions of power dependent on education were as open to abused children, poor children, working-class children as they are to the children of the rich and successful. I really wish that were true. "

" For years, I looked down on my mother for shopping at Asda, and now I feel very ashamed of it. "

" The politics of fear are always the same. They are easily recognisable in retrospect. They are easy to acquiesce in at the time. "

" I used to think there was something cheap in trying to make beautiful sentences. Now I think language has its own ways and ends, and it does one's thinking good to try to serve them. Beauty isn't truth. But a certain kind of clear beauty will help in the pursuit of truth. "

" If you hold strong convictions against gay marriage, you shouldn't apply for a job as a registrar. "

" The demands of having to be 'masculine' are as damaging to men as the demands of having to be 'feminine' are to women. I wish we could all agree just to wash it all away. Begin again. "

" I don't think I have any particular problem with God. "

" It's hard to describe why one room and not another feels right for writing. Of course you have to train yourself to be able to write anywhere, but it's nice to feel that each book has a place that belongs to it, where it's home. "

" Let's teach boys at school the personally and economically valuable skills of self-expression and emotional intelligence, of mediation and problem-solving. "

" Traditions are always puzzling to those who don't share them. I'm Jewish, so the idea of a 'perfect family Christmas' is foreign to me. "

Naomi Alderman

Perfect

Always

" I hate to be one of those people who forwards links to 'hilarious pictures' or 'brilliant games' to half their contacts database. "

" The thing about having true fans, it seems, is that they remain loyal to their idea of what the work meant to them. And that might make them more exacting than the toughest studio executive or publishing boss. "

Naomi Alderman

Work

Fans

" It's very easy for a writer to spend much too much time in her head. "

" I'd been to an Orthodox Jewish primary school where, every morning, the boys said, 'Thank you God for not making me a woman.' If you put that together with 'The Handmaid's Tale' in your head, something will eventually go fizz! Boom! "

" No human quality belongs to only one class of person. We all get to be both aggressive and loving. We all get to delight in our careers and revel in our children. We're all kind and brave, soft and hard, sciency and artsy, interested in being looked at and in admiring others' physical form. Everything. "

" While 'Iron Man' is tremendous fun, it's another reminder of the pressure on all of us to make ourselves increasingly perfect and a little less human. And that is something it is important to resist. "

" Attending a book group is always a salutary experience for a writer. There's no guarantee that the people there will have enjoyed your book, and, as anyone who has taken part in a book group will know, half the fun is in ripping a book you haven't liked to shreds. "

" The gaming world isn't filled only with violence and depravity. In fact, it's mostly enchanting. "

" Sometimes you feel like the people who invest in hate are winning. Then you just want to talk about love and what it really means to love yourself. "

" We all know that the desire for perfection can get in the way of authenticity and enjoyment; it's the same with games. There's a completist part to many of us that can't rest until we reach the perfect 100% finish point. "

" Just as readers often turn into writers, novel-writers often become novel-reviewers. "

" I suppose the idea about all Orthodox religion is that it's a kind of submission, obedience. "

" It's absolutely delightful to get dressed up for a lovely evening, but when it goes from being a fun thing to being a chore, and a chore that men don't have to do, then we need to think about it differently. "

" More choice doesn't make us happy, and we understand that no one has infinite choices about how to live life. "

" You can't write a thing that is hermetically sealed; there has to be a way for the audience to get in and participate. I think that's a massively valuable discipline for any artist. "

" I had a year of panic attacks. I was feeling really pressured, like I could never do it again. With a first novel, you put things on hold because it takes so much mental energy and self-belief to keep on writing. "