Zadie Smith Quotes

The future's another country, man... And I still ain't got a passport.

In a whisper he began begging for—and, as the sun set, received—the concession people always beg for: a little more time.

I like books that don't give you an easy ride. I like the feeling of discomfort. The sense of being implicated.

It's got two aspects. The bit that involves the public life I could not really tolerate and cannot really tolerate. I just can't get used to the idea of being somebody unreal in people's minds. I can't live my life like that.

(and Catholics give out forgiveness at about the same rate as politicians give out promises and whores give out)

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

It's not in good taste to have talking ghosts in a grown-up novel.

I don't actually believe in the extension of consciousness after death.

All novels attempt to cut neural routes through the brain, to convince us that down this road the true future of the novel lies.

English fiction was something I loved growing up, and it changed my life - it changed the trajectory of my life.

Rarely does one see a squirrel tremble.

Novels and stories are sometimes very complex staging grounds to say, in fact, very simple things. Things impossible to say otherwise because they are repeated in so many exploitative contexts - adverts and TV shows and political speeches.

Any woman who counts on her face is a fool.

I don't ask myself what did I live for, said Carlene strongly. That is a man's question. I ask whom did I live for.

Sometimes Allah punishes and sometimes men have to do it, and it is a wise man who knows if it's Allah's turn or his own.

When I was young, I was very technical about these things. I didn't like to admit to any intimate relation with what I was writing.

I always remind myself that [ Jean-Paul] Sartre and [Simone] de Beauvoir didn't have children. And when you don't have children, it might be easier to believe that the child doesn't come with something.

I often worry that my idea of personhood is nostalgic, irrational, inaccurate.

This, after all, was the month in which families began tightening and closing and sealing; from Thanksgiving to the New Year, everybody's world contracted, day by day, into the microcosmic single festive household, each with its own rituals and obsessions, rules and dreams. You didn't feel you could call people. They didn't feel they could phone you. How does one cry for help from these seasonal prisons?

You say you want to talk, But you don't . You stonewall me.

The greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free.

All tastes are expressions of belief.

Desperation, weakness, vulnerability - these things will always be exploited. You need to protect the weak, ring-fence them, with something far stronger than empathy.

I wouldn't write about people who are living and who are close to me, because I think it's a very violent thing to do to another person. And anytime I have done it, even in the disguise of fiction, the results have been horrific.

The object of the passion is just an accessory to the passion itself.

Make sure the lubricant is unscented. Don't join fashionable 'schools of thought.' Read everything.

When I see my friends engaging in a Twitter war for an afternoon, I think that would destroy me for a month.

... 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, cinéma vérité, a good belly chuckle, a sympathetic smile, a raised eyebrow, disguised contempt.

She had that thing most people don't have - curiosity. She might not have always got the right answers, but she wanted to ask the questions. It's very hard if you are interested in ideas and all that, ideas and the philosophies of the past, it's very hard to find someone around here to really talk to. That's the tragedy of the thing really I mean, when you think about it. Certainly I can't find anyone around here to talk to anymore. And for a woman it's even harder you see. They can feel very trapped - because of the patriarchy. I do feel everyone needs to have these little chats now and then.

I find it impossible to experience either pride or shame over accidents of genetics in which I had no active part. I'm not necessarily proud to be female. I am not even proud to be human — I only love to be so.

Some people--Samad for example--will tell you not to trust people who overuse the phrase "at the end of the day"--football managers, estate agents, salesmen of all kinds--but Archie's never felt that way about it. Prudent use of said phrase never failed to convince him that his interlocutor was getting to the bottom of things, to the fundamentals.

You don't have favourites among your children, but you do have allies.

I am very selfish, really. I lived for love.

Generally, women can't do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like removing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable.

She hopes for nothing except fine weather and a resolution. She wants to end properly, like a good sentence.

This is what divorce is: taking things you no longer want from people you no longer love.

I'm always interested in the way people speak and move in their environment, in a very particular environment. I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the any novel is a local thing always.

It was a kiss from the past.

Where I come from," said Archie, "a bloke likes to get to know a girl before he marries her." "Where you come from it is customary to boil vegetables until they fall apart. This does not mean," said Samad tersely, "that it is a good idea.

It's a funny thing about rap, that when you say 'I' into the microphone, it's like a public confession. It's very strange.

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the ­internet.

The 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.

Full stories are as rare as honesty.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

We cannot love something solely because it has been ignored. It must also be worthy of our attention.

She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.

But sometimes it's like you just meet someone and you just know that you're totally connected, and this person is, like, your brother - or your sister. Even if they don't, like, recognize it, you feel it. And in a lot of ways it don't matter if they do or they don't see that for what it is - all you can do is put the feeling out there. That's your duty. Then you just wait and see what comes back to you. That's the deal.