And so it happened again, the daily miracle whereby interiority opens out and brings to bloom the million-petalled flower of being here,… — 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
It was in the air, or so it seemed to Kiki, this hatred of women and their bodies- it seeped in with… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
(Feedback) People become addicted to it. That’s why journalism is so popular, because you want to hear, every day, what people think… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
I have an ambition to write a great book, but that's really a competition with myself. I've noticed that a lot of… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
You know, you don't expect everyone to be as educated as everyone else or have the same achievements, but you expect at… — 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
All my books are made up of other books. They're all deeply structured on other fiction, because I was a student in… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
I know a lot of people who read and think: "George [Saunders] is so much fun." There's no denying you're fun to… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
If religion is the opiate of the people, tradition is an even more sinister analgesic, simply because it rarely appears sinister. If… — 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
Unless you consider yourself some sort of human brand, which I don't, you have to deal with the fact that different people… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
Some people--Samad for example--will tell you not to trust people who overuse the phrase "at the end of the day"--football managers, estate… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
My life is black and white and mixed. My mother's a Rastafarian, my dad was a short white guy - it's not… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
150 years ago in [Charles] Dickens's time there was at least a sense of craft. So some of the things people had… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
I cannot believe homosexuality is that much fun. Heterosexuality certainly is not. — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Oh, I know that. You know me, baby, I cannot be broken. Takes a giant to snap me in half. — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image