The choices a writer makes within a tradition - preferring Milton to Moliere, caring for Barth over Barthelme - constitute some of the most personal information we can have about him.
Zadie SmithYour mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.
Zadie SmithMake sure the lubricant is unscented. Don't join fashionable 'schools of thought.' Read everything.
Zadie SmithThe young people have a phrase for this now, which is "slay in your lane." That's a very important principle of writing. You have to work out what it is you can't do, obscure it, and focus on what works.
Zadie SmithI'm just interested in women's friendships generally. It always seems to me, and this is just my pet theory, that women are kind of at the sharp end of capitalism one way or another. Mainly because they buy everything. In a practical sense, women buy most things. They're always comparing - to friends, to famous people, to other people. An obsessive act of comparison.
Zadie Smith