Donโt romanticise your โvocationโ. You can either write good sentences or you canโt. There is no โwriterโs lifestyleโ. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
Zadie SmithFirst rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
Zadie SmithIf you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.
Zadie SmithA lot of women, when they're young, feel they have very good friends, and find later on that friendship is complicated. It's easy to be friends when everyone's 18. It gets harder the older you get, as you make different life choices, as people say in America. A lot of women's friendships begin to founder.
Zadie Smith