Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith FRSL is an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 October 1975
faces fool
Any woman who counts on her face is a fool.
writing thinking years
I just realized quite early on that I'm not going to be the type who can write a novel every two years. I think you need to feel an urgency about the act. Otherwise, when you read it, you feel no urgency, either. So I don't write unless I really feel I need to, and that's a luxury.
squirrels doe
Rarely does one see a squirrel tremble.
weather want resolution
She hopes for nothing except fine weather and a resolution. She wants to end properly, like a good sentence.
odds mountain matter
It wasn't like the spare rooms of immigrants - packed to the rafters with all that they have ever possessed, no matter how defective or damaged, mountains of odds and ends - the stand testament to the fact that they have things now, where before they had nothing.
makeup shoes phones
I remember so clearly, in the early days, if I had to do a piece of press, they'd phone for me and say, 'Oh, we're going to bring hair and makeup, it'll take about five hours.' And I said, 'Well, if it was Ian McEwan, would it take about five hours? Would there be hair and makeup? Cause if that's not the case, then don't bring the hair and makeup.' So, it's fascinating that they just assume: it's a young woman, she must want to be photographed for five hours. She must have nothing better to do than delight in trying on all your shoes. But it's not the case.
army rapper epic
Asking why rappers always talk about their stuff is like asking why Milton is forever listing the attributes of heavenly armies. Because boasting is a formal condition of the epic form. And those taught that they deserve nothing rightly enjoy it when they succeed in terms the culture understands.
bags easier hoover
It's still easier to find the correct Hoover bag than to find one pure person, one pure faith, on the globe.
honesty stories
Full stories are as rare as honesty.
caring artist choices
The choices a writer makes within a tradition - preferring Milton to Moliere, caring for Barth over Barthelme - constitute some of the most personal information we can have about him.
mistake book writing
If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.
approval made feels
It made me feel that I had to work very hard, but I've always felt I had to work very hard to get my own approval.
good-friend america people
A lot of women, when they're young, feel they have very good friends, and find later on that friendship is complicated. It's easy to be friends when everyone's 18. It gets harder the older you get, as you make different life choices, as people say in America. A lot of women's friendships begin to founder.
listened matters people politics
Young people understand the world. They should be listened to on matters of politics and world organization. But they know nothing of their own lives.