"This, after all, was the month in which families began tightening and closing and sealing; from Thanksgiving to the New Year, everybody's world contracted, day by day, into the microcosmic single festive household, each with its own rituals and obsessions, rules and dreams. You didn't feel you could call people. They didn't feel they could phone you. How does one cry for help from these seasonal prisons?"

45 likes

Source: This is how it feels to me by Zadie Smith, www.theguardian.com. October 13, 2001.

About the author

Zadie Smith

Novelist, Essayist

Zadie Smith is a British novelist known for her exploration of race, identity, and multiculturalism in works like 'White Teeth'.

All quotes by Zadie Smith →

Same author

More quotes by Zadie Smith

See all →
Zadie Smith Novelist, Essayist

"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."

Read quote
Zadie Smith Novelist, Essayist

"Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you."

Read quote
Zadie Smith Novelist, Essayist

"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."

Read quote