I'm quite good on the harmonica and can get a tune out of most musical instruments, so long as the tune is 'Oh Susannah.' Ali Smith More Quotes by Ali Smith More Quotes From Ali Smith Every great narrative is at least two narratives, if not more - the thing that is on the surface and then the things underneath which are invisible. Ali Smith invisible narrative two Happy is what you realize you are a fraction of a second before it's too late. Ali Smith fractions realizing too-late Do you come to art to be comforted, or do you come to art to be re-skinned? Ali Smith art To be known so well by someone is an unimaginable gift. But to be imagined so well by someone is even better. Ali Smith unimaginable known wells Stella Duffy is a writer who never lets you down. Ali Smith stella 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. Ali Smith reading believe book Short stories consume you faster. They're connected to brevity. With the short story, you are up against mortality. I know how tough they are as a form, but they're also a total joy. Ali Smith insightful stories joy Books mean all possibilities. They mean moving out of yourself, losing yourself, dying of thirst and living to your full. They mean everything. Ali Smith mean book moving Oh. To be filled with goodness then shattered by goodness, so beautifully mosaically fragmented by such shocking goodness. Ali Smith filled shattered goodness A good argument, like a good dialogue, is always a proof of life, but I'd much rather go and read a book. Ali Smith argument proof book Art makes nothing happen in a way that makes something happen. Ali Smith happens way art 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. Ali Smith scotland mother father There are things that can't be said, because it's hard to have to know them. Ali Smith hard knows said Fashion is fickle, and I was published because I was fashionable. Because I was gay. Ali Smith fickle fashion gay 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. Ali Smith growing-up brother years We all know our dates of birth but . . . every year there is another date that we pass over without knowing what it is but it is just as important it is the other date the death date. Ali Smith important knowing years 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. Ali Smith get-better stories jobs I went to the top of Vesuvius and looked in. 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. Ali Smith dust would-be running What shop did this book come from? she asked. Her father was looking worried at the cooker. He always got rice wrong. I don't know, Brooksie, he said, I don't remember. That was unimaginable, not remembering where a book has come from! and where it was bought from! That was part of the whole history, the whole point, of any book that you owned! And when you picked it up later in the house at home, you knew, you just knew by looking and having it in your hand, where it came from and where you got it and when and why you'd decided to buy it. Ali Smith home father book
