Quote

Then you begin to give up the very idea of belonging. Suddenly this thing, this belonging,it seems like some long, dirty lie ... and I begin to believe that birthplaces are accidents, that everything is an accident. But if you believe that, where do you go? What do you do? What does anything matter?

Zadie Smith

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Zadie Smith
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: October 27
Essayist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Zadie Adeline Smith
Ideas
Begin
Everything
Community
Matter
Lying
Birthplace
Giving
Idea
Belonging
Thing
Seems
Accident
Long
Doe
Accidents
Believe
Give
Dirty
Like
Anything
Suddenly

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Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.
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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.
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It was a kiss from the past.
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You're a library of me.
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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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I recognize myself to be an intensely naive person. Most novelists are, despite frequent pretensions to deep socio-political insight.
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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.
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Surely there is something to be said for drawing a circle around our attention and remaining within that circle. But how large should this circle be?
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World makers, social network makers, ask one question first: 'How can I do it?'
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Where I come from, said Archie, a bloke likes to get to know a girl before he marries her. Where you come from it is customary to boil vegetables until they fall apart. This does not mean, said Samad tersely, that it is a good idea.
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Some people--Samad for example--will tell you not to trust people who overuse the phrase at the end of the day--football managers, estate agents, salesmen of all kinds--but Archie's never felt that way about it. Prudent use of said phrase never failed to convince him that his interlocutor was getting to the bottom of things, to the fundamental
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It's a funny thing about rap, that when you say 'I' into the microphone, it's like a public confession. It's very strange.
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I wouldn't write about people who are living and who are close to me, because I think it's a very violent thing to do to another person. And anytime I have done it, even in the disguise of fiction, the results have been horrific.
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Revelation is where all crazy people end up. It's the last stop on the nutso express.
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If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.
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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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Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.
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My short stories have always pushed twenty pages. That's no length for a short story to be. You either do them short like Carver or you stop trying.
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The lady was old, the lady was ill. It didn't matter what the lady believed.
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The past is always tense, the future perfect.
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