“I was brought up with the sense that I was absolutely no different from my brothers. I went to college thinking I was absolutely no different from the men in college. But that's not true. I'm fundamentally different. The problem was not being able to understand difference and equality at the same time. It's something that we can't seem to comprehend. You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality. It's a mistake.” ThinkingMenDifferentStatesProblemSeemsAbleDifferencesMistakeCollegeHe ManBrotherMy BrotherSameness Author:Zadie Smith
“For me, [deep structures] might be something very simply to do with the split in my family. That's why I'm always thinking about opposites. It's so childish, really, but that might be simply what it is.” ThinkingMightMy FamilyOppositesStructureSplitsAlways Thinking Author:Zadie Smith
“I know a lot of people who read and think: "George [Saunders] is so much fun." There's no denying you're fun to read, but as a writer I think of [George Saunders] as, in fact, not a fun and freewheeling type but really an obsessive control artist.” PeopleThinkingKnowsFactsArtistFunTypeObsessive Author:Zadie Smith
“I was thinking about the generation before us, like John Barth and all of those pomo dudes who had that idea of, instead of hiding the structure and making it look organic and natural, we're going to put the structure on the outside. But most of the time, at least for me, all I could attend to [in Swing Time] was that act of structural self-consciousness.” ThinkingLooksIdeasSelfNaturalConsciousnessGenerationsStructureHidingSwingsSelf Consciousness Author:Zadie Smith
“I 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.” IfsThinkingWorldWellsChildrenEyePainUsedSufferingCoursesViewsPerspectiveComfortMeaningful Author:Zadie Smith
“When I was 13, I really used to skip down the street, happy in thinking, "Oh, well, someone's suffering pain in order for me to feel this pleasure."” ThinkingFeelsWellsPainUsedSufferingOrderPleasureStreetsSkipOh WellSuffering Pain Author:Zadie Smith
“When I see my friends engaging in a Twitter war for an afternoon, I think that would destroy me for a month.” ThinkingWarMonthsMy FriendsAfternoonEngaging Author:Zadie Smith
“I just realized quite early on that I'm not going to be the type who can write a novel every two years. I think you need to feel an urgency about the act. Otherwise, when you read it, you feel no urgency, either. So I don't write unless I really feel I need to, and that's a luxury.” ThinkingNeedsFeelsWritingYearsTwoNovelTypeLuxuryTwo YearsUrgencyJust Realized Author:Zadie Smith
“I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindClassSupportCreativeGroupsHorrorOppositesTherapyCreative WritingMoonlightTherapeuticSupport Groups Author:Zadie Smith
“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.” PeopleThinkingWritingPersonsHas BeensDoneResultsFictionViolentThings To DoDisguiseHorrific Author:Zadie Smith
“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.” PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsFeelsMeanLittlesI CanIdeasHardPhilosophyMightWantedPastAsksAnswersHarderTragedyCuriosityNow And ThenTrappedPatriarchyRight Answers Author:Zadie Smith
“(Feedback) People become addicted to it. That’s why journalism is so popular, because you want to hear, every day, what people think of what you just wrote. I think a little patience on that front can be good, too.” PeopleThinkingWantLittlesFrontsBe GoodJournalismFeedback Author:Zadie Smith
“Sometimes I think my whole professional life has been based on this hunch I had, early on, that many people feel just as muddled as I do, and might be happy to tag along with me on this search for clarity, for precision. I love that aspect of writing. Nothing makes me happier than to hear a reader say: that’s just what I’ve always felt, but you said it clearly.” PeopleThinkingFeelsWritingHas BeensSaidSometimesWholeMightFeltReaderAspectClarityPrecisionTagHunchesProfessional LifeFeels Just Author:Zadie Smith
“I have an ambition to write a great book, but that's really a competition with myself. I've noticed that a lot of young writers, people in all media, want to be famous but they don't really want to do anything. I can't think of anything less worth striving for than fame.” PeopleThinkingWantWritingI CanBookYoungMediaFameAmbitionCompetitionStriveGreat BookYoung Writers Author:Zadie Smith
“It's a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.” ThinkingWritingSometimesReasonFeelingsHoursHalfNovelFourCleanFinalsAdjectivesHalf HoursFinal Words Author:Zadie Smith
“An essential part of power is the freedom not to think too deeply” ThinkingEssentials Author:Zadie Smith
“Are there other people who, when watching a documentary set in a prison, secretly think, as I have, 'Wish I had all that time to read'?” PeopleThinkingWishPrisonDocumentaries Author:Zadie Smith
