All Russell Smith Quotes
- Calls for the simplification of abstract or allusive art have always come from governments suspicious of artists themselves. This is why totalitarian regimes have always… Abstract
- I would rather be nuts than unattractive. Nuts
- There is something insouciant and boyish about the sockless ankle in summer. Ankle
- What makes a publisher decide to market a book to a particular audience is not the subject matter but the style. Audience
- The only thing that makes a book YA is that it is about teenagers, and it is written in a very conventional, non-artsy, non-pretentious way.… Any
- The YA category is an entirely new one, and seems to have more to do with readability than with age group or theme. The adult… Adult
- Increasingly, to dismiss any popular artistic style is seen as the worst kind of snobbery. And snobbery, it goes without saying, is unacceptable in a… Any
- Indeed, the whole point of the man bun, I have surmised, is to assert a high proficiency at yoga. There are no yoga-achievement badges, no… Achievement
- I have argued about the future of fiction with jaded novelists, far-seeing postmodernists, technologists, television critics. The argument that future generations will not know the… Argued
- Here is a fundamental conflict in educated society: We are not supposed to value beauty so highly, and yet who can defend against its sheer… Beauty
- Fashion has always been in conflict with convention. Style involves some knowledge of both. But you can pretty much forget these seasonal injunctions. Been
- My son craves picture books about Transformers and Ninja Turtles and the Hulk; they show one fantastic creature smashing or zapping another into smithereens on… Books
- I am so sick of being exhorted, as a writer, to improve the world by representing it in a more hopeful way. Exhorted
- No surprise here: Pop music is by far the most conservative art form there is. Art
- A song is a short composition for voice and instruments. It is a piece of sung poetry set to music. It is usually only a… Composition
- Only a tiny portion of music history involves a singer and a lyric. Songs in music are generally thought to be a minor form. Form
- No matter how fine your suit and your shoes, you will remind everyone that you are not yet a grownup man by wearing them with… College
- Ah, the intractable Canadian problem: Winter and finery are basically incompatible. Ah
- The only pleasurable part of taking the subway, as everyone will agree, is concocting elaborate fantasies about what it would be like to be married… Agree
- All coffee shops now have WiFi. Why bring a book when you could be wittily attacking some idiot columnist on Twitter, or responding to your… All
- Verisimilitude is something I am constantly seeking in fiction. I am looking for surface detail that makes something seem real. Constantly
- Periods of nostalgia are impossible to predict or explain. Explain
- What is a literary festival? Imagine a sort of cross between school and church. There are no actual festivities; what there are is a lot… Actual
- Frosh-week songs are meant to be offensive because offensive is rebellious. Meant
- Universities can teach maturity. They can teach teenagers how to be adults, and that means to function outside a clique or a tribe. Adult