When I was 21 I wanted to write like Kafka. But, unfortunately for me, I wrote like a script editor for The Simpsons who'd briefly joined a religious cult and then discovered Foucault. Such is life. Zadie Smith More Quotes by Zadie Smith More Quotes From Zadie Smith When people use that stream of consciousness, it's kind of just a term they use for anything that looks slightly different on the page. Zadie Smith different people looks 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. Zadie Smith brother college mistake I'm a writer who never writes about sex. It's so far from my own fictional world. Zadie Smith writing sex world And it's just anathema to being a writer. It's not healthy. But in another way, when I'm writing, what it's about for me is being good on the page. None of that noise could change the way I feel about my writing. Which is not always particularly positive. Zadie Smith healthy noise writing It's got two aspects. The bit that involves the public life I could not really tolerate and cannot really tolerate. I just can't get used to the idea of being somebody unreal in people's minds. I can't live my life like that. Zadie Smith two people ideas In my situation, every time I write a sentence, I'm thinking not only of the people I ended up in college with but my siblings, my family, my school friends, the people from my neighborhood. I've come to realize that this is an advantage, really: it keeps you on your toes. Zadie Smith you family time people I'm always a bit suspicious of writers who have the gift of the gab. Zadie Smith gift who always suspicious Some people like just sitting down and being taken for a ride. That's a beautiful thing that fiction can do. But it's not the only thing. In television and film, people are ready to accept any kind of jump cut, but the slightest disturbance on the page ruffles their feathers. Zadie Smith ride down beautiful people My life is black and white and mixed. My mother's a Rastafarian, my dad was a short white guy - it's not an affectation. It's also the lives of millions of people throughout the world. Zadie Smith black-and-white black mother life People with children will know this: when the childcare is over, it's over on the dot. You immediately have to go into child mode; there's no down time. Zadie Smith you time children people If you asked me if I wanted more joyful experiences in my life, I wouldn't be at all sure I did, exactly because it proves such a difficult emotion to manage. Zadie Smith my-life me you life Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay. Zadie Smith good you library people I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them; most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic. Writing is the exact opposite of therapy. Zadie Smith my-life support life people I just can't get used to the idea of being somebody unreal in people's minds. I can't live my life like that. And it's just anathema to being a writer. It's not healthy. Zadie Smith live my-life life people Young people understand the world. They should be listened to on matters of politics and world organization. But they know nothing of their own lives. Zadie Smith understand politics people world
