Quotessence
Home / Authors / Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleWritingFeelsWayIfsThinkingNovelWorldMenWhite TeethBookChildrenFictionKindMightSeemsIdeasKnowsWantSaid

Famous Zadie Smith Quotes

“I'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.”

PeopleWayKindEndsSeemsTheoryCapitalismPracticalsOne WayComparePetComparisonObsessive
Author:Zadie Smith
Create image

“Last year, when Zora was a freshman, sophomores had seemed altogether a different kind of human: so very definite in their tastes and opinions, in ther loves and ideas. Zora woke up this morning hopeful that a transformation of this kind might have visited her in the night, but, finding it hadn't, she did what girls generally do when they don't feel the part: she dressed it instead.”

FeelsYearsHumansKindIdeasDifferentMightLastsNightGirlOpinionMorningTasteFindingsTransformationHopefulDifferent KindsLast YearDefiniteFreshmanSophomore
Book:On Beauty
Create image

“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.”

PeopleWayKindSaidEndsUseFeltExampleFootballFundamentalsBottomAll KindsAgentsManagersPhrasesThe End Of The DayConvinceEstatesSalesmanPrudentEstate Agents
Author:Zadie Smith
Create image

“If religion is the opiate of the people, tradition is an even more sinister analgesic, simply because it rarely appears sinister. If religion is a tight band, a throbbing vein, and a needle, tradition is a far homelier concoction: poppy seeds ground into tea; a sweet cocoa drink laced with cocaine; the kind of thing your grandmother might have made.”

PeopleIfsKindMadeMightSweetDrinkBandTraditionSeedsTeaGrandmotherVeinsNeedlesCocaineSinisterPoppiesOpiatesYour GrandmotherCocoa
Book:White Teeth
Create image