The Longest Shortest Time

It’s Going to Be a Nightmare

Actress Tilda Swinton on early parenthood, in an AP article about her new film We Need to Talk About Kevin, based on the book of the same title.

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“I remember very soon after giving birth realizing that my imagination had taken on a kind of brutal capacity that it had never had before,” said Swinton, the mother of teenage twins. “Pregnancy is brutal as it is, but there is something about the experience of childbirth that stretches in every sense your imaginary capacity for brutality.

“And I don’t think you ever go back. There is a sort of innocence you lose. You get sort of blooded, literally. When I read the book, it spoke to that, and I was so grateful.

“I’ve made it my business ever since to say to expectant parents: it’s going to be a nightmare. And it’s going to be wonderful, and you’re never going to regret it, but it’s going to be a nightmare. Amazingly, very few people seem to say this.”

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