Zadie Smith Good Quotations

Oh yes, my generation liked to be in some pain when they read. The harder it was, the more good we believed it was doing us.

Working with great writers can be humbling and frightening, but it can also change you for good, forever.

Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.

A lot of women, when they're young, feel they have very good friends, and find later on that friendship is complicated. It's easy to be friends when everyone's 18. It gets harder the older you get, as you make different life choices, as people say in America. A lot of women's friendships begin to founder.

Your mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.