606 Quotes by Zadie Smith

Race. Land. Ownership. Faith. Theft. Blood. And more blood. And more. And.

We were the first generation to have, in our own homes, the means to re- and forward-wind reality: even very small children could press their fingers against those clunky buttons and see what-has-been become what-is or what-will-be.

The lady was old, the lady was ill. It didn’t matter what the lady believed.

In the end, your past is not my past and your truth is not my truth and your solution – is not my solution.

No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels. Sometimes she stuck out into the future, imagining her life different from what it was. But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods – come and gone with the sun.

Writing is what I know. Conceiving self-implemented schedules: teaching day, reading day, writing day, repeat. What a dry, sad, small idea of a life. And how exposed it looks, now that the people I love are in the same room to witness the way I do time. The way I’ve done it all my life.

I couldn’t imagine her leaving this world without ripping its fabric.

It hurts just as much as it is worth.

Between propriety and joy choose joy.