Quotes by Siri Hustvedt

About Siri Hustvedt:

Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, six novels, two books of essays, and several works of non-fiction. Her books include: The Blindfold (1992), The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996), What I Loved (2003), for which she is best known, A Plea for Eros (2006), The Sorrows of an American (2008), The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (2010), The Summer Without Men (2011), Living, Thinking, Looking (2012), and The Blazing World (2014). What I Loved and The Summer Without Men were international bestsellers. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

As one of four daughters, I grew up with an imaginary brother - wondering what it would have been like if one of us had been a boy. There's no question that there was a phantom boy child in my imagination when I was young.

Siri Hustvedt

Hysteria is something that I've been interested for a very long time. I thought I might have it, but it seems that it's unlikely.

Siri Hustvedt

Sigmund Freud was very much a creature of his time. He did not 'invent' the unconscious.

Siri Hustvedt

Novelists embody plural selves all the time. What are characters, after all, if not other selves?

Siri Hustvedt

Every time the DSM prepares for a new edition, there are countless groups lobbying to get their particular mental illness recognized by the diagnostic manual. Surely, this is a social and cultural phenomenon.

Siri Hustvedt

While reading 'David Copperfield' in the middle of the night - probably because of the light, I had insomnia for the first time - I looked out of the window and thought, 'If this is what books can do, this is what I want to do.'

Siri Hustvedt

Years ago, when I was in Siena for the first time, I saw the works of Duccio, whose deeply emotional painting from the thirteenth century has never left me.

Siri Hustvedt

If something's not working, it's wonderful to have a reader you can trust to say, 'Actually, you've gone off the deep end here'.

Siri Hustvedt

The relationship between the imagined and the real is more complicated than people imagine.

Siri Hustvedt

Ego, id, and superego are terms familiar to all, but for many years, Freud's psychoanalytic theory has thrived in English departments around the country as a tool for interpreting literary texts but has rarely, if ever, been discussed in science depa...

Siri Hustvedt

I found myself fascinated by neuroscience, attended a monthly lecture on brain science at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, and was invited to become a member of a discussion group devoted to a new field: neuropsychoanalysis.

Siri Hustvedt

The third-person or 'objective,' static, reductive models used in most science are important and yield significant results, but they have their limitations.

Siri Hustvedt

It's hard to penetrate characters who are very cut off and lack empathy and to do it with sympathy. It's so easy to make a damaged character repugnant.

Siri Hustvedt

If I have open time, and I'm in Manhattan, I'll just walk to wherever I'm going, even if I could get there faster on the subway. I just love walking the streets of New York.

Siri Hustvedt

Far more women read fiction than men, and because of this, novels have become marginalised as serious texts.

Siri Hustvedt

Each person does see the world in a different way. There is not a single, unifying, objective truth. We're all limited by our perspective.

Siri Hustvedt

Being a mother is complicated because it's not just a paternal culture making demands on you; it's those internal demands and expectations that women have and are self-generated.

Siri Hustvedt

Author Bio

  • NameSiri Hustvedt
  • Descriptionnovelist, essayist, poet
  • BornFebruary 19, 1955
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPoet; Author; Novelist