606 Quotes by Zadie Smith

I was brought up with the sense that I was absolutely no different from my brothers. I went to college thinking I was absolutely no different from the men in college. But that's not true. I'm fundamentally different. The problem was not being able to understand difference and equality at the same time. It's something that we can't seem to comprehend. You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality. It's a mistake.

I like books that don't give you an easy ride. I like the feeling of discomfort. The sense of being implicated.

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.

I'm always a bit suspicious of writers who have the gift of the gab.

I'm just interested in women's friendships generally. It always seems to me, and this is just my pet theory, that women are kind of at the sharp end of capitalism one way or another. Mainly because they buy everything. In a practical sense, women buy most things. They're always comparing - to friends, to famous people, to other people. An obsessive act of comparison.

The arena of women's lives is somewhat more intimate. If a woman goes out with an incredibly attractive man and they break up, that woman is not more attractive to men. It's completely irrelevant to them. That's an example of the way women's minds work.

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.

Nowadays, I know the true reason I read is to feel less alone, to make a connection with a consciousness other than my own.

It made me feel that I had to work very hard, but I've always felt I had to work very hard to get my own approval.