Every great narrative is at least two narratives, if not more - the thing that is on the surface and then the things underneath which are invisible.
Ali SmithBooks mean all possibilities. They mean moving out of yourself, losing yourself, dying of thirst and living to your full. They mean everything.
Ali SmithWe'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.
Ali SmithTonight I can smell the season the way it's usually only possible to at the very first moments of its return, before you're used to it, when you've forgotten its smell, then there it is back in the air and the flow of things shifting and resettling again.
Ali SmithOutside the leaves on the trees constricted slightly; they were the deep done green of the beginning of autumn. It was a Sunday in September. There would only be four. The clouds were high and the swallows would be here for another month or so before they left for the south before they returned again next summer.
Ali Smith