Author: Zadie Smith

Cites

• H. J. Blackham (2)
  • IN: On Beauty (2006) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: "We refuse to be each other."
    FROM: Six Existentialist Thinkers, (1952), Book, UK
  • IN: White Teeth (2000) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: We refuse to be each other.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, UK
• Elaine Scarry (1)
  • IN: On Beauty (2006) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: "To misstate, or even merely understate, the relation of the universities to beauty is one kind of error that can be made. A university is among the precious things that can be destroyed."
    FROM: On Beauty and Being Just, (1999), Book, US
• Mark Doty (1)
  • IN: On Beauty (2006) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: "When I say I hate time, Paul says / how else could we find depth / of character, or grow souls?"
    FROM: School of the Arts, (2005), Poem, US
• Tracy Lord (1)
  • IN: Changing My Mind: Occassional Essays (2009) Fiction, Essays, British
    EPIGRAPH: The time to make your mind up about people is never!
    FROM: The Philadelphia Story, (1940), Film, US
• David Foster Wallace (2)
  • IN: Changing My Mind: Occassional Essays (2009) Fiction, Essays, British
    EPIGRAPH: You get to decide what to worship.
    FROM: Commencement address to Kenyon College’s graduating class of 2005, (2005), Speech, US
  • IN: Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (2009) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: You get to decide what to worship
    FROM: "This is Water", (2005), Speech, US
• Franz Kafka (1)
  • IN: The Autograph Man (2002) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Naturally things cannot in reality fit together the way the evidence does in my letter; life is more than a Chinese puzzle.
    FROM: letter to his father, (1952), Letter, Czech Republic
• Marilyn Monroe (1)
  • IN: The Autograph Man (2002) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: I would always make believe that Clark Gable was my father.
    FROM: NULL, (None), [NA], US
• Lenny Bruce (1)
  • IN: The Autograph Man (2002) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Dig: I'm Jewish. Cound Basie's Jewish. Ray Charles is Jewish. Eddie Cantor's goyish. B'nai B'rith is goyish; Hadassah, Jewish. If you live in New York or any other big city, you are Jewish. It doesn't even matter if you're Catholic; if you live in New York, you're Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you're going to be goyish even if you're Jewish. Kool-Aid is goyish. Evaporated is goyish even if the Jews invented it. Chocolate is Jewish and fudge is goyish. Fruit salad is Jewish. Lime Jell-O is goyish. Lime soda is very goyish. All Drake's Cakes are goyish. Pumpernickel is Jewish and, as you know, white bread is very goyish. Instant potatoes, goyish. Black cherry soda's very Jewish, macaroons are very Jewish. Negroes are all Jews, Italians are all Jews. Irishmen who have rejected their religion are Jews. Mouths are very Jewish. And bosoms. Baton-twirling is very goyish. Underwear is definitely goyish. Balls are goyish. Titties are Jewish. Celebrate is goyish word. Observe is a Jewish word/. Mr. and Mrs. Walsh are celebrating Christmas with Major Thomas Moreland, USAF (ret.), while Mr. and Mrs. Bromberg observed Hanukkah with Goldie and Arthur Schindler from Kiamesha, New York.
    FROM: NULL, (1961), NULL, US
• William Shakespeare (1)
  • IN: White Teeth (2000) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: What’s past is prologue
    FROM: The Tempest, (1623), Play, UK
• E. M. Forster (1)
  • IN: White Teeth (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Every little trifle, for some reason, does seem incalculably important today, and when you say of a thing that “nothing hangs on it” it sounds like blasphemy. There’s never any knowing – how am I to put it? – which of our actions, which of our idlenesses won’t have things hanging on it for ever.
    FROM: Where Angels Fear to Tread, (1905), Novel, UK
• George Cukor (1)
  • IN: Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (2009) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: The time to make your mind up about people is never!
    FROM: Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story, (1940), Film, US
• John Ball (1)
  • IN: NW (2012) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?
    FROM: NULL, (1381), Speech, UK
• NULL (1)
  • IN: Swing Time (2016) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: When the music changes, so does the dance.
    FROM: Hausa proverb, (None), Proverb, Niger/Nigeria

Cited by

• Amanda Chong (1)
  • IN: Professions (2016) Poetry, Singaporean
    EPIGRAPH: Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.
    FROM: White Teeth, (2000), Novel, UK