All novels attempt to cut neural routes through the brain, to convince us that down this road the true future of the novel lies.
Zadie SmithOther peopleโs words are so important. And then without warning they stop being important, along with all those words of yours that their words prompted you to write. Much of the excitement of a new novel lies in the repudiation of the one written before. Other peopleโs words are the bridge you use to cross from where you were to wherever youโre going.
Zadie SmithIt has historically been a comfort for the bourgeois and that you can read the most extreme books and not change. You can read A Christmas Carol and not change in any way.
Zadie SmithA trauma is something one repeats and repeats, after all, and this is the tragedy of the Iqbals--that they can't help but reenact the dash they once made from one land to another, from one faith to another, from one brown mother country into the pale, freckled arms of an imperial sovereign.
Zadie Smith