Ali Smith
Ali Smith
Ali Smith CBE FRSLis a Scottish writer...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionWriter
book needs alive
All we need to do, reader or writer, from first line to final page, is be as open as a book, and be alive to the life in language - on all its levels.
book argument proof
A good argument, like a good dialogue, is always a proof of life, but I'd much rather go and read a book.
book reading believe
We'd never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we've read a book after reading it just once.
father book home
What shop did this book come from? she asked. Her father was looking worried at the cooker. He always got rice wrong. I don't know, Brooksie, he said, I don't remember. That was unimaginable, not remembering where a book has come from! and where it was bought from! That was part of the whole history, the whole point, of any book that you owned! And when you picked it up later in the house at home, you knew, you just knew by looking and having it in your hand, where it came from and where you got it and when and why you'd decided to buy it.
moving book mean
Books mean all possibilities. They mean moving out of yourself, losing yourself, dying of thirst and living to your full. They mean everything.
art craft crafty dark great light notions quite time twin word
It's the word 'artful'; it's such a great word, with its dark and its light side, its art and its cunning, the craft and the crafty of it - I've been preoccupied with the word 'artful' and the twin notions of 'cornucopia' and 'pickpocket' it suggests for quite some time.
looks kind
There is a kind of poetry, bad and good, in evrything, everywhere we look.
connections connected happens
Even things which seem separate and finished are infinitely connected and will infinitely connect. This connection happens as soon as you let it, as soon as you engage - as soon as you even attempt to engage.
moving space corsets
Words are like untying a corset - you can move into this great space with them.
important stories knows
It is important to know the stories and histories of things, even if all we know is that we don't know.
eye broken might
All we are is eyes looking for the unbroken or the edges where the broken bits might fit each other.
art way happens
Art makes nothing happen in a way that makes something happen.
heart reason
The head has its confines. The head’s got those all right, and the heart. The heart has its reasons.
tombstone want headstone
I don't want a tombstone. You could carve on it 'She never actually wanted a tombstone.'