Quote

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.

Zadie Smith

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Zadie Smith
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: October 27
Essayist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Zadie Adeline Smith
Comes
Whichever
Tell
Resign
Hands
Veil
Truth
Veils
Writing
Lifelong
Never
Sadness
Satisfied
Hand

More quotes by Zadie Smith

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When I was young, I was very technical about these things. I didn't like to admit to any intimate relation with what I was writing.
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I always remind myself that [ Jean-Paul] Sartre and [Simone] de Beauvoir didn't have children. And when you don't have children, it might be easier to believe that the child doesn't come with something.
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One thing you learn about the novel as a form is that it's always smarter than you are.
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Life’s not a video game, Felix- there aren’t a certain number of points that send you to the next level. There isn’t actually any next level. The bad news is that everybody dies at the end. Game Over.
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The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer.
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They had nothing to say to each other. A five-year age gap between siblings is like a garden that needs constant attention. Even three months apart allows the weeds to grow up between you.
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Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression ? Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself.
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Oh, I know that. You know me, baby, I cannot be broken. Takes a giant to snap me in half.
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It's a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.
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I know a lot of people who read and think: George [Saunders] is so much fun. There's no denying you're fun to read, but as a writer I think of [George Saunders] as, in fact, not a fun and freewheeling type but really an obsessive control artist.
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I don't ask myself what did I live for, said Carlene strongly. That is a man's question. I ask whom did I live for.
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All tastes are expressions of belief.
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'A reality shaped around your own desires' - there is something sociopathic in that ambition.
Zadie Smith
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It's still easier to find the correct Hoover bag than to find one pure person, one pure faith, on the globe.
Zadie Smith
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I have a natural tendency to feel well about the world, I suppose, one way or another. But then there is the problem of pain. There are things like [Abraham] Lincoln's beloved little boy dying.
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I love to dance, and sing - in the shower, not in public. Im too old to go raving, but my fondest memories are of that kind of thing - dancing, with lots of people, outside if possible.
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You're a library of me.
Zadie Smith
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The past is always tense, the future perfect.
Zadie Smith
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He had her in his heart, but not always in his mind.
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Desperation, weakness, vulnerability - these things will always be exploited. You need to protect the weak, ring-fence them, with something far stronger than empathy.
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