Education and Finding Your Literary Voice
Education gives you the tools, but your voice is something you must find yourself. It takes time and the courage to be yourself on the page.
Zadie Smith
English novelist known for her explorations of identity and multiculturalism, including the novel White Teeth
All moments: Zadie Smith
- Youth and the Weight of Expectation — Zadie Smith
When you're young and writing your first novel, you don't know what you're doing. And that's good. Ignorance gives you freedom.
- Shame as Fuel for Writing — Zadie Smith
Shame is a powerful feeling. When you try to write about your own life, you have to confront it directly. Writers often come from places of pain, and shame is part of that pain.
- Language as Battleground — Zadie Smith
Language is never neutral. Every word we choose carries political weight and historical memory.
- Language as a Political Act — Zadie Smith
How do you write? First, you must listen. You have to listen to how people actually speak, and respect that.
- The Pain of Knowledge — Zadie Smith
Much of writing is an attempt to convey the inexpressible. You know something, but you can't find the words for it. It's torture and pleasure at the same time.
- Midlife and Moral Reassessment — Zadie Smith
In literature, we're interested in people who make the wrong choices. Moral clarity is boring. Human life is messy and contradictory.
Related moments
- Documenting History — Questlove
As a documentarian, I feel a responsibility to preserve the history of Black music and culture
- The Art of Service — John Legend
As an artist, I see my role as serving humanity and raising my voice for justice
- Humble Beginnings — Paul McCartney
Nobody believed in us at first. We just believed in ourselves and the music.
- Always Be a Good Human — Louis Armstrong
I've always tried to be a good human being. That's what matters.
- Childhood - Where It All Starts — Michael Jackson
Childhood is where it all starts. If we lose childhood, we lose everything.
- A Song Is Blood — Paul McCartney
A melody comes to me like someone is singing it to me. It's magic.