"You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality."
"It's difficult to tell the truth about how a book begins. The truth, as far as it can be presented to other people, is either wholly banal or too intimate."
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Source: On the beginning by Zadie Smith, www.theguardian.com. July 15, 2006.
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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."
"The past is always tense, the future perfect."
"Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you."
"Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories."
"Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page."