This is a great quote that sums up about 95% of my working life. Only time I've felt completely undistracted from the joy and worries for my affections have been when I've worked in a different country than the one where my children happen to be.
Women, in all fields – whether mothers or not – still encounter an extraordinary number of obstacles. They have to hold too many things together and often sacrifice their aspirations in the name of affections. To give an outlet to their creativity is thus especially arduous. It requires a great deal of motivation, strict discipline and many compromises. Above all, it entails quite a few feelings of guilt. And in order not to cut out a large part of one’s private life, the creative work should not swallow up every other form of self-expression. But that is the most complicated thing.
from an interview with Elena Ferrante in The Gentlewoman
