Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith FRSL is an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 October 1975
girl men self
- You look fine. - Right. I look fine. Except I don't, said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why Kiki had dreaded having girls: she knew she wouldn't be able to protect them from self-disgust.
people looks sometimes
Sometimes you get a flash of what you look like to other people.
empathy stronger needs
Desperation, weakness, vulnerability - these things will always be exploited. You need to protect the weak, ring-fence them, with something far stronger than empathy.
book people fiction
All my books are made up of other books. They're all deeply structured on other fiction, because I was a student in fiction and I didn't have much actual living to draw on. I suspect a lot of other people's novels are like that, too, though they might be slower to talk about it.
self good-times knows
Your mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.
writing way eliminating
Writing is my way of expressing - and thereby eliminating - all the various ways we can be wrong-headed.
world firsts social-network
World makers, social network makers, ask one question first: 'How can I do it?'
doe alternatives action
The lack of alternatives to an illegal action does not legitimise that action.
interesting people political
People profess to have certain political positions, but their conservatism or liberalism is really the least interesting thing about them.
rap funny-things strange
It's a funny thing about rap, that when you say 'I' into the microphone, it's like a public confession. It's very strange.
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.
writing talking honest
I'm most honest about writing when I'm talking to family or friends, not to newspapers.
white different teeth
I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.
political novelists insight
I recognize myself to be an intensely naive person. Most novelists are, despite frequent pretensions to deep socio-political insight.