"You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality."
"The last page of [Lincoln in the Bardo] - without giving too much away - involves somebody entering somebody else. Not in a sexual way. But it says one of the simplest things you could ever say, which is that we must try and be inside each other. We must have some kind of feeling for each other and enter into each other's experience."
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More quotes by Zadie Smith
"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."