Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Rachel Cusk

Quote by Rachel Cusk

“Not to be understood is effectively to be silenced, but not understanding can in its turn legitimise that silence, can illuminate one’s own unknowability. Art is the pact of individuals denying society the last word.”

Quote by Rachel Cusk

Book:Parade

Work

Parade

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk

Rachel Cusk, born in 1967, is a distinguished British novelist. Her works are renowned for their unique narrative style and profound insights into modern life. Cusk's writing spans a range of themes including personal experience, family relationships, and social change, and has garnered widespread acclaim from readers. more

You May Also Like

“The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol. Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness, that is, its aura. Originally the contextual integration of art in tradition found its expression in the cult. We know that the earliest art works originated in the service of a ritual—first the magical, then the religious kind.”

“If we become aware that someone is sending thoughts of ill will in our direction, we do not argue with the apparent reality of malice. To do so would give it more substance. We remove the personal sense of ourself and the other person.”