With Zadie Smith's new novel 'Swing Time' just around the corner, we went back to have a re-read of some of her other novels and essays.
On opening On Beauty, Zadie Smith's last novel, you will find the stunning quote:
'Time is how you spend your love.'
Which is taken from Smith's own husband, Nick Laird's, poem, 'The Last Saturday in Ulster'.
To whet your palette, refresh your memory or, in fact, inspire you to discover some Zadie Smith, here are some of our favourite quotes from one of our favourite writers.
'He had her in his heart, but not always in his mind.' The Autograph Man
'Happiness is not an absolute value. It is a state of comparison.' NW
'Sometimes, one wants to have the illusion that one is making ones own life, out of one's own resources.' NW
'When the male organ of a man stands erect, two thirds of his intelect go away. And one third of his religion.' White Teeth
'Fate is a quantity very much like TV: an unstoppable narrative, written, produced and directed by somebody else.' White teeth
'I find it impossible to experience either pride or shame over accidents of genetics in which I had no active part. I'm not necessarily proud to be female. I am not even proud to be human—I only love to be so.' Changing My Mind
'The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.' Changing My Mind
'The greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free.' On Beauty
'The future's another country, man... And I still ain't got a passport.'On Beauty
And if you thought Smith might be smug with her brilliance, here is a review she wrote for her own first novel, White Teeth anonymously.
'This kind of precocity in so young a writer has one half of the audience standing to applaud and the other half wishing, as with child performers of the past (Shirley Temple, Bonnie Langford et al), she would just stay still and shut up. White Teeth is the literary equivalent of a hyperactive, ginger-haired tap-dancing 10-year-old.'
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
