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Zadie Smith Quotes

Novelist

Zadie Smith is a British novelist known for her distinctive literary style and profound social insights. Her works cover a range of themes including race, class, gender, and identity, and have been widely appreciated by readers.

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All People Writing Feels Way Ifs Thinking Novel World Men White Teeth Book Children Fiction Kind Might Seems Ideas Knows Want Said

Famous Zadie Smith Quotes

“Neither my readers nor I are in the relatively sunlit uplands depicted in White Teeth anymore. But the lesson I take from this is not that the lives in that novel were illusory, but rather that progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and *reimagined* if it is to survive.”

Politics Progress Despair Optimism Outlook White Teeth

Book:Feel Free: Essays

Source: Feel Free: Essays

“Maybe nothing that happens upon stolen ground can expect a happy ending.”

White Teeth Zadie Smith

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

“I AM NOT A WAITER. I HAVE BEEN A STUDENT, A SCIENTIST, A SOLDIER, MY WIFE IS CALLED ALSANA, WE LIVE IN EAST LONDON BUT WE WOULD LIKE TO MOVE NORTH. I AM A MUSLIM BUT ALLAH HAS FORSAKEN ME OR I HAVE FORSAKEN ALLAH, I'M NOT SURE. I HAVE A FRIEND—ARCHIE—AND OTHERS. I AM FORTY-NINE BUT WOMEN STILL TURN IN THE STREET. SOMETIMES. (3.81)”

Identity Racial Profiling White Teeth Zadie Smith

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

“I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.”

Feels Different White Late Teeth Different Times White Teeth

Author:Zadie Smith

“...They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.”

Loses Shadow White Teeth

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

“Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.”

Water Deserve Clean Cards Greetings Clean Water Worthy Of Love White Teeth Deserve Love Greeting Card

Book:White Teeth: A Novel

Source: White Teeth: A Novel

“Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.”

Should Skins Suspects Infection White Teeth

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

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

People Want Divorce White Teeth

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

“You are never stronger...than when you land on the other side of despair.”

Sides Land Despair Stronger Empowering White Teeth

Author:Zadie Smith

“I cannot believe homosexuality is that much fun. Heterosexuality certainly is not.”

Believe Fun Homosexuality Heterosexuality White Teeth

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

“Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.”

Life Two Different Moments Happens Inside And Outside White Teeth

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

“We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.”

Believe Might Water Bears Goodness Worship Deserve Clean Worthy Convinced Cards Our Love Greetings Clean Water Worthy Of Love White Teeth Deserve Love Greeting Card

Book:White Teeth: A Novel

Source: White Teeth: A Novel

“It's still easier to find the correct Hoover bag than to find one pure person, one pure faith, on the globe.”

Persons Stills Easier Pure Bags Globes Hoover White Teeth

Book:White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

About the Author

Born: October 25, 1975
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 327

Books & Sources

White TeethRelated source material

On BeautyRelated source material

Swing TimeRelated source material

NWRelated source material

Feel Free: EssaysRelated source material

IntimationsRelated source material

The Autograph ManRelated source material

White Teeth: A NovelRelated source material

The Autograph Man: A NovelRelated source material

The FraudRelated source material

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