I wanted to know whether I would go through it, not because this knowledge would have made motherhood imaginable, but because it seemed to me that the issue could not remain shrouded in uncertainty without becoming a distraction.
-- The Author (Introduction)

Importance: Here, Cusk reflects on her early preoccupation with being a mother. This quotation conveys the compelling nature of the question of motherhood for her, and shows that she did not desire motherhood so much as she wanted to control it. It calls attention to how whether or not women have children, they must in some way deal with the question of whether they will have them, and also the personal and social consequences of the eventual outcome.

Like a trailer for a horror film, the adult body hints broadly at what must remain uneasily within the precincts of the imagination until legitimate entrance to its full unfolding is attained.
-- The Author (Forty Weeks)

Importance: In this quotation...