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Quote by Ali Smith

“We'd never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we've read a book after reading it just once.”

Quote by Ali Smith

Author

Ali Smith, born in 1962, is a renowned British writer. Her works are known for their unique style and profound themes, covering various genres such as novels, essays, and plays. Smith's writing often explores the relationship between individuals and society, as well as the intertwining of history and reality. more

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“A game one of my sisters will play with me in my first year of being alive is called Good Baby, Bad Baby. This consists of being told I am a good baby until I smile and laugh, then being told I am a bad baby until I burst into tears. This training will stand me in good stead all through my life.”

Years Firsts Play Games Laughing Alive Tears Baby Training My Sister I Smile Smile And Laugh

Author:Ali Smith

“As for Aliki - if you were to stand in the middle of Rome and say the name Sophia Loren, or Paris and say the name Catherine Deneuve or Brigitte Bardot, or L.A. and the name Marilyn Monroe, it's like standing in Athens, or anywhere in wide-flung Greece, and saying Aliki Vougiouklaki. A huge star - and so little known elsewhere in the world.”

Ifs World Littles Names Stars Known Middle Huge Standing Wide Paris Rome Elsewhere Greece Athens Sophia

Author:Ali Smith

“But everything written has style. The list of ingredients on the side of a cornflakes box has style. And everything literary has literary style. And style is integral to a work. How something is told correlates with - more - makes what's being told. A story is its style.”

Stories Sides Written Style Boxes Lists Ingredients Literary Style

Author:Ali Smith

“I had a job, I got ill, I left the job to get better, and while I was getting better, I wrote some stories. I sent them to some publishers and the fifth one who replied said they'd take them. Then they went bankrupt. Then that bankrupt publisher got bought by a bigger firm. Story: in the end is the beginning, and in the beginning is the end.”

Said Ends Stories Jobs Left Bigger Ill Firm Get Better Publishers Fifth

Author:Ali Smith

“I was at the tail end of the family. The next brother along was already seven years older than me. I remember growing up by myself, playing games by myself.”

Years Ends Remember Next Games Growing Up Growing Brother Seven Tails Seven Years Playing Games

Author:Ali Smith

“I'm blessed in my good friends, and some of them happen to be writers, though that's almost never what our friendships are about. And every writer I've ever read, living or dead, has in one way or another helped and inspired. I have a feeling it's important not to mix the two up.”

Way Two Important Feelings Happens Blessed Inspired One Way Good Friend

Author:Ali Smith

“My father is from Newark in Nottinghamshire and my mother is from the very north of Ireland. They've ended up in Scotland, where my father - well, both of them - will always be seen as having come from somewhere else.”

Wells Mother Father Ireland Scotland Somewhere Else Newark

Author:Ali Smith

“Nothing is harmful to literature except censorship, and that almost never stops literature going where it wants to go either, because literature has a way of surpassing everything that blocks it and growing stronger for the exercise.”

Way Want Literature Growing Exercise Stronger Block Censorship Surpassing Growing Stronger

Author:Ali Smith

“We're well past the end of the century when time, for the first time, curved, bent, slipped, flash forwarded, and flashed back yet still kept rolling along. We know it all now, with our thoughts traveling at the speed of a tweet, our 140 characters in search of a paragraph. We're post-history. We're post-mystery.”

Knows Firsts Wells Stills Ends Character Past Mystery Century First Time Speed Posts Flash Rolling Our Thoughts Bent Tweet Paragraph Know It All 140 Character Rolling Along

Author:Ali Smith

“You never know if you're a writer. You can't trust it. If you woke up and said, "I'm a writer," it would be gone. You wouldn't see anything for miles - even the dust would be running away.”

Ifs Knows Said Would Be Running Gone Miles Dust Running Away

Author:Ali Smith