Home / Quotes / Quote by Zadie Smith

Quote by Zadie Smith

“Your mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.”

Quote by Zadie Smith

Author

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. more

You May Also Like

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

Needs Protect Empathy Weakness Weak Stronger Rings Vulnerability Desperation Fence

Author:Zadie Smith

“All my books are made up of other books. They're all deeply structured on other fiction, because I was a student in fiction and I didn't have much actual living to draw on. I suspect a lot of other people's novels are like that, too, though they might be slower to talk about it.”

People Made Book Might Fiction Novel Students Draws Suspects

Author:Zadie Smith

“Any artist who aligns themselves with a politician is making a category error because what politicians do is not on a human scale, it is on a geopolitical scale.”

Humans Artist Politician Errors Scales Categories Geopolitical

Author:Zadie Smith

“English writing tends to fall into two categories - the big, baggy epic novel or the fairly controlled, tidy novel. For a long time, I was a fan of the big, baggy novel, but there's definitely an advantage to having a little bit more control.”

Writing Littles Long Two Bigs Fall Bits Novel Fans Little Bit Long Time Advantage Controlled Categories Epic Tidy English Writing

Author:Zadie Smith

“English, as a subject, never really got over its upstart nature. It tries to bulk itself up with hopeless jargon and specious complexity, tries to imitate subjects it can never be.”

Trying Subjects Complexity Hopeless Jargon Upstart

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.”

Thinking Needs Feels Writing Years Two Novel Type Luxury Two Years Urgency Just Realized

Author:Zadie Smith

“I lost many literary battles the day I read 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.' I had to concede that occasionally aphorisms have their power. I had to give up the idea that Keats had a monopoly on the lyrical.”

Giving Ideas Eye Lost Battle Giving Up Aphorism Monopoly Lyrical

Author:Zadie Smith

“I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them.”

People Thinking Writing Kind Class Support Creative Groups Horror Opposites Therapy Creative Writing Moonlight Therapeutic Support Groups

Author:Zadie Smith

“I read Carver. Julio Cortázar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me.”

Sound Like Me Essays Carver

Author:Zadie Smith

“I tap danced for ten years before I began to understand people don't make musicals anymore. All I wanted to do was be at MGM working for Arthur Freed or Gene Kelly or Vincent Minelli. Historical and geographical constraints made this impossible. Slowly but surely the pen became mightier than the double pick-up time step with shuffle.”

People Years Made Wanted Steps Impossible Ten Picks Historical Pens Genes Constraints Arthur Shuffle Mgm Slowly But Surely

Author:Zadie Smith