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'A reality shaped around your own desires' - there is something sociopathic in that ambition.

Zadie Smith

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Zadie Smith
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: October 27
Essayist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Zadie Adeline Smith
Reality
Around
Something
Sociopathic
Shaped
Desires
Ambition
Desire

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I'm most honest about writing when I'm talking to family or friends, not to newspapers.
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First rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
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The world is now multicultural the same way the world is round. It's not a selling point, it's not a 'quirky' feature, it's not a cynical marketing ploy, it's not an artistic statement, it's not even a plot device. It's a fact, like seedless grapes.
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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 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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It's gotten to a point where everybody is concerned about their rights and nobody is concerned about their duties.
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I never bought the idea of individual genius from which the novel spews forth. It's always an act of curation.
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The lack of alternatives to an illegal action does not legitimise that action.
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Step back from your Facebook Wall for a moment: Doesn't it, suddenly, look a little ridiculous? Your life in this format?
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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 greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free.
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You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.
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When I was 13, I really used to skip down the street, happy in thinking, Oh, well, someone's suffering pain in order for me to feel this pleasure.
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A writer's duty is to register what it is like for him or her to be in the world.
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Make sure the lubricant is unscented. Don't join fashionable 'schools of thought.' Read everything.
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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.
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As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.
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Don't live in a way that makes you feel dead.
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