Quote

I'm always interested in the way people speak and move in their environment, in a very particular environment. I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the any novel is a local thing always.

Zadie Smith

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Zadie Smith
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: October 27
Essayist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Zadie Adeline Smith
Way
Move
Always
Environment
Neutral
Never
Particular
Locals
People
Moving
Local
Speak
Anywhere
Writing
Universal
Thing
Interested
Kind
Novel

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In a whisper he began begging for—and, as the sun set, received—the concession people always beg for: a little more time.
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Learning how to be a good reader is what makes you a writer.
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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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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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An essential part of power is the freedom not to think too deeply
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I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.
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Each couple is its own vaudeville act.
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The library was the place I went to find out what there was to know. It was absolutely essential.
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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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English, as a subject, never really got over its upstart nature. It tries to bulk itself up with hopeless jargon and specious complexity, tries to imitate subjects it can never be.
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You don't have favourites among your children, but you do have allies.
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But surely to tell these tall tales and others like them would be to spread the myth, the wicked lie, that the past is always tense and the future, perfect.
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For ridding oneself of faith is like boiling seawater to retrieve the salt--something is gained but something is lost.
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He did not consider if or how or why he loved them. They were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away.
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You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you find real human beings begin to cautiously appear on your pages.
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It was a kiss from the past.
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She hopes for nothing except fine weather and a resolution. She wants to end properly, like a good sentence.
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There's a perception that novels can't usually allow for your kind of absolute attention to detail.
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Time is how you spend your love.
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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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