Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ยญbeing satisfied.
Zadie SmithI wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.
Zadie SmithOur children will be born of our actions. Our accidents will become their destinies. Oh, the actions will remain. It is a simple matter of what you will do when the chips are down, my friend. When the fat lady is singing. When the walls are falling in, and the sky is dark, and the ground is rumbling. In that moment our actions will define us. And it makes no difference whether you are being watched by Allah, Jesus, Buddah, or whether you are not. On cold days a man can see his breath, on a hot day he can't. On both occasions, the man breathes.
Zadie SmithWhen people use that stream of consciousness, it's kind of just a term they use for anything that looks slightly different on the page.
Zadie SmithIt seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpretive possibility of those actions.
Zadie SmithThe golden age of Luncheon Vouchers ended ten yearsago. For ten years Mickey had been saying, "The goldenage of Luncheon Vouchers is over." And that's what Archieloved about O'Connell's. Everything was remembered,nothing was lost. History was never revised orreinterpreted, adapted or whitewashed. It was as solid andas simple as the encrusted egg on the clock.
Zadie Smith