There's a perception that novels can't usually allow for your kind of absolute attention to detail.
Zadie SmithI used to take that God's-eye view as a comfort when I was a child. I'd think, "Well, we couldn't find the world meaningful at all if it weren't for death." Of course, that is the smuggest and most intolerable of all perspectives because I'm not suffering from the death or the pain.
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 Smith