"I might be writing what people expect me to write, writing from that place where I might be ruled by economic considerations. To overcome that, I started working with my dreams, because I'm not so censored when I use dream material"
About this Quote
The pivot to dreams is a tactical jailbreak. Dream material isn’t "pure" or mystical here; it’s useful precisely because it’s unruly. Dreams arrive pre-contaminated with taboo, contradiction, and bodily fear, which means they can smuggle in what conscious writing filters out. Acker’s subtext is that censorship isn’t only external (publishers, gatekeepers, obscenity laws) but self-administered through professionalism and genre expectation. Dreams short-circuit that compliance by refusing coherent plot, stable identity, or respectable desire.
Context matters: Acker’s work in the late 70s through the 90s was built on piracy and collage, queering authorship, splicing high theory with porn and pulp. Calling herself "censored" nods to a culture that polices women’s speech and sexuality while packaging transgression as aesthetic lifestyle. Her method isn’t escapism; it’s sabotage. Write from the dream, and you don’t just evade the market’s demands - you expose how thoroughly they’ve colonized waking language.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Acker, Kathy. (2026, January 16). I might be writing what people expect me to write, writing from that place where I might be ruled by economic considerations. To overcome that, I started working with my dreams, because I'm not so censored when I use dream material. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-might-be-writing-what-people-expect-me-to-write-119670/
Chicago Style
Acker, Kathy. "I might be writing what people expect me to write, writing from that place where I might be ruled by economic considerations. To overcome that, I started working with my dreams, because I'm not so censored when I use dream material." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-might-be-writing-what-people-expect-me-to-write-119670/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I might be writing what people expect me to write, writing from that place where I might be ruled by economic considerations. To overcome that, I started working with my dreams, because I'm not so censored when I use dream material." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-might-be-writing-what-people-expect-me-to-write-119670/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
