I lost many literary battles the day I read 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.' I had to concede that occasionally aphorisms have their power. I had to give up the idea that Keats had a monopoly on the lyrical.

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith

Aphorism Battles Concede Day Eyes Give God Had Idea Keats Literary Lost Lyrical Many Monopoly Occasionally Power Read Up Watching Were

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Byron and Shelley and Keats/ Were a trio of lyrical treats.

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I read Carver. Julio Cortazar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me.

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English fiction was something I loved growing up, and it changed my life - it changed the trajectory of my life.

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The utterly fallacious idea at the heart of the pro-war argument is that it is the duty of the anti-war argument to provide an alternative to war. The onus is on them to explain just cause.

— Zadie Smith

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