What interests me in [Lincoln in the Bardo] is a slight perverse balance between the sublime and the grotesque. Like you could have landed only on the sublime. But my argument is that the sublime couldn't exist without this other half.
Zadie SmithYour mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.
Zadie SmithPeople profess to have certain political positions, but their conservatism or liberalism is really the least interesting thing about them.
Zadie Smith150 years ago in [Charles] Dickens's time there was at least a sense of craft. So some of the things people had inside of them, they had the possibility of expressing in the making of things - even in a daily way with their clothes or their food. People made a good deal of both themselves. Now our daily lives are almost all consumption. Craft plays a tiny role.
Zadie Smith