When I was 13, I really used to skip down the street, happy in thinking, "Oh, well, someone's suffering pain in order for me to feel this pleasure."
Zadie SmithWhen I see my friends engaging in a Twitter war for an afternoon, I think that would destroy me for a month.
Zadie SmithMake sure the lubricant is unscented. Don't join fashionable 'schools of thought.' Read everything.
Zadie SmithAnd now the moment. Such a moment has a peculiar character. It is brief and temporal indeed, like every moment; it is transient as all moments are; it is past, like every moment in the next moment. And yet it is decisive, and filled with the eternal. Such a moment ought to have a distinctive name; let us call it the Fullness of Time.
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... don't ever underestimate people, don't ever underestimate the pleasure they receive from viewing pain that is not their own... Pain by itself is just Pain. But Pain + Distance can = entertainment, voyeurism, human interest, cinรฉma vรฉritรฉ, a good belly chuckle, a sympathetic smile, a raised eyebrow, disguised contempt.
Zadie Smith