Rachel Kushner (born 1968) is an American writer, known for her novels Telex from Cuba (2008) and The Flamethrowers (2013). Read full biography of Rachel Kushner →
I have crashed on a motorcycle that was going at 140mph, so I know what it feels like.
I am occasionally enraptured by Western landscape. But I don't identify that state of mind as having to do with my own origins, having grown up... →
I begin a book with imagery, more than I do with an idea or a character. Some kind of poetic image.
My mother told me many stories about her childhood in Cuba. Living there had a profound impact on her and how she regards herself.
Eventually, I decided that if I was going to really write a novel, I couldn't do it in New York City while holding down a job. You need a... →
It's really a misconception to identify the writer with the main character, given that the author creates all the characters in the book. In... →
L.A. is a great place to write because you have a lot of space. I have a big office at home, I can leave the doors open. Flowers bloom all year. But... →
One of the strategies for doing first-person is to make the narrator very knowing, so that the reader is with somebody who has a take on everything... →
When I see things in the world that leap out at me, I want to make use of them in fiction. Maybe every writer does that. It just depends on what you... →
Art is about play and about transcendent meanings, not reducible to politics.
I am not a sun person at all. I think it's a cancerous poison and I don't want it touching me.
A lot of politics in art is just institutional critique, which, in my opinion, is not all that political.
I guess I'm not really fond of just chit-chatting. I want to learn something and have an experience.