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An essential part of power is the freedom not to think too deeply

Zadie Smith

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Zadie Smith
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: October 27
Essayist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Zadie Adeline Smith
Freedom
Part
Power
Think
Thinking
Deeply
Essential
Essentials

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I tap danced for ten years before I began to understand people don't make musicals anymore. All I wanted to do was be at MGM working for Arthur Freed or Gene Kelly or Vincent Minelli. Historical and geographical constraints made this impossible. Slowly but surely the pen became mightier than the double pick-up time step with shuffle.
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The belief that consciousness extends beyond death is surely to put more belief in the permanence of self, not less. That seems to me a comfort that you're allowing yourself.
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The object of the passion is just an accessory to the passion itself.
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I like books that don't give you an easy ride. I like the feeling of discomfort. The sense of being implicated.
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Anyone over the age of thirty catching a bus can consider himself a failure.
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I'm not sure if you're the person for me any more.
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Something in me was changed by Lincoln in the Bardo, and the great sublime/grotesque risk of [George Saunders'] ghosts was a part of it.
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Generally, women can't do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like removing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable.
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Are there other people who, when watching a documentary set in a prison, secretly think, as I have, 'Wish I had all that time to read'?
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Desire is never final, desire is imprecise and impractical [...]
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I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.
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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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We cannot love something solely because it has been ignored. It must also be worthy of our attention.
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All novels attempt to cut neural routes through the brain, to convince us that down this road the true future of the novel lies.
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She represents love, beauty, purity, the ideal female and the moon...and she's the mystère of jealousy, vengeance and discord, AND, on the other hand, of love, perpetual help, goodwill, health, beauty and fortune.
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The idea that motherhood is inherently somehow a threat to creativity is just absurd.
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Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.
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The lady was old, the lady was ill. It didn't matter what the lady believed.
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(and Catholics give out forgiveness at about the same rate as politicians give out promises and whores give out)
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I am very selfish, really. I lived for love.
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