I wouldn't write about people who are living and who are close to me, because I think it's a very violent thing… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
Books are not brands. Some people are very willing to see themselves as a brand, but you can't be a certain type… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
I suppose I often think of my writing as quite impersonal. But it turned out, when my father died, writing was exactly… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
It's a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are. Which leads me to my second… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
When I was 21, I wanted to write like Kafka. But, unfortunately for me, I wrote like a script editor for 'The… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
English writing tends to fall into two categories - the big, baggy epic novel or the fairly controlled, tidy novel. For a… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
And it's just anathema to being a writer. It's not healthy. But in another way, when I'm writing, what it's about for… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them; most writers groups moonlight as support… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
The young people have a phrase for this now, which is "slay in your lane." That's a very important principle of writing.… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the novel is a… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
That's the thing about fiction writers: what seems alarming or particular or perverse about them is simply the shape of their brain… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
The choices a writer makes within a tradition - preferring Milton to Moliere, caring for Barth over Barthelme - constitute some of… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
- You look fine. - Right. I look fine. Except I don't, said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why Kiki… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
“Pretty girls lie at the centre of straight culture, dyke culture, fag culture. They sell everything, they buy everything, they ruin great men and… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
“I have known many true connoisseurs, with excellent tastes that range across the humanities and the culinary arts--and they never fail to have a… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
I cannot believe homosexuality is that much fun. Heterosexuality certainly is not. — Zadie Smith Copy Share
“Either everything is sacred or nothing is. And if he starts burning other people’s things, then he loses something sacred also. Everyone gets what’s… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
My feeling is, having lived in different classes, that people want equality of opportunity... that's the thing that makes me despair: the idea that… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
I don't keep any copies of my books in the house - they go to my mum's flat. I don't like them around. — Zadie Smith Copy Share
But it makes an immigrant laugh to hear the fears of the nationalist, scared of infection, penetration, miscegenation, when this is small fry, peanuts,… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
Oh, I know that. You know me, baby, I cannot be broken. Takes a giant to snap me in half. — Zadie Smith Copy Share
“In short, it was precisely the kind of friendship and Englishman makes on holiday, that he can make only on holiday. A friendship that… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
I suppose I often think of my writing as quite impersonal. But it turned out, when my father died, writing was exactly what I… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
“Some of us are happy with our African hair, thank you very much. I don't want some poor Indian girl's hair. And I wish… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality. — Zadie Smith Copy Share
“(Unlike many others around this time, Joyce felt no shame about using the term 'middle class'. In the Chalfen lexicon the middle classes were… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
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… — Zadie Smith Copy Share
