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Quote by Samantha Hunt

“Discourse about motherhood is chillingly narrow-minded. It's a tool the patriarchy uses, of course. So people complain about their kids or they complain about the pain of birth or they make motherhood kitschy, Mother's Day-y.”

Quote by Samantha Hunt

Author

Samantha Hunt is an American novelist born in 1971. Her works are known for their unique narrative style and profound insights into historical events. more

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“Much of the writing I do about the female body is to remind women, myself included, that they make life and they make death. That strikes me as a far more powerful stance than the weak lies told about mothering.”

Writing Lying Powerful Female Weak Mothering Female Body

Author:Samantha Hunt

“There is nothing more important to our survival, nothing more dignified than learning how to take care of others, how to serve and teach people with kindness and openness. Mothers are experts in these fields. I hope people can learn to listen to them, learn to be like them and acknowledge the wisdom there before it is too late. I hope people can learn how to serve others.”

People Important Care Mother Teach Kindness Survival Take Care Acknowledge Openness

Author:Samantha Hunt

“I think I write mostly about death and so it is interesting to hear how often people think I'm writing about pregnancy and birth. Though of course they are two sides of the same coin. Both when I was pregnant and now as a mother, I am consumed with thoughts of death. This is a strange role in parenting. The death guardian.”

People Thinking Writing Mother Interesting Strange Birth Pregnancy Pregnant Guardian

Author:Samantha Hunt

“The first time I took my daughters to the ocean - and I love the ocean but where we swim is very rough, very New England, rip tide, not messing around ocean - and a thought arrived: I was asking my daughters to slowly recognize death, just dip their toes in its fathomless edge, to know it is there, even in the night when we don't see it and that it, in its mystery and largeness, in its terror, is the thing that makes life precious, magnificent and full of never-ending curiosity.”

Night Mystery Ocean Daughter First Time Curiosity Terror My Daughter Rough Swim Magnificent Rip

Author:Samantha Hunt

“John Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is very important to me as an influence. When I didn't know how to start Mr. Splitfoot, I just wrote the first line of As I Lay Dying instead and then continued on. It's dissolved in the text now, but it helped me start.”

Important Influence Dying

Author:Samantha Hunt

“I am very bad at remembering the books I've read and so recently I had a wonderful experience. I decided I wanted to teach Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I hadn't read it in twenty-five years. I was surprised to find how much I drew from that book. Stole from that book, learned from that book about writing. I had forgotten and there it was. Morrison has called that text faulted. I cannot see how.”

Writing Book Eye Remember Teach Wonderful Forgotten

Author:Samantha Hunt

“One last important influence I'll mention is Flannery O'Connor. In high school I shoplifted her Complete Stories. Having read "Good Country People" for class, I really just felt a home in her work. I had little guilt about the theft at the time. I sucked in my stomach and shoved the book into my pants. It's very big. I can still feel how it cut into my body in the most exciting way. Clearly, I don't feel guilt-free about this crime anymore - I wouldn't be mentioning here, looking for some absolution if I did.”

People Important Book Country Home School Cutting Influence Crime High School Exciting Guilt

Author:Samantha Hunt

“There's a voice when I write. I speak everything aloud. My family is so accustomed to me talking to myself that often times they don't answer me when I am trying to speak to one of them.”

Writing Trying Speak My Family

Author:Samantha Hunt

“The lion's share of my work is revision, 85%? I revise forever, combing over lines, listening and listening to them in different hours and moods so that I feel they are finally right for me.”

Different Hours Forever Share Listening Mood

Author:Samantha Hunt

“There's definitely a voice and I always speak my work aloud. I have a lot of old people in my head, most of them dead now, but I always hear how they would say things, my grandparents and my neighbors.”

People Speak Neighbor Grandparent Old People

Author:Samantha Hunt