Ricardo

“Although the most powerful art, it sometimes seems to me, it's an experience and a going-through; it is love comprehended by, expressed and enacted through the artwork itself, and for this reason has perhaps been more frequently created by people who feel themselves to be completely alone in this world —and therefore wholly focused on the task at hand— than by those surrounded by "loved ones".”
― Zadie Smith, Intimations

“I read this line about love: "Without it, life is just 'doing time'" I don't think she intended by this only romantic love, or familial love or really any kind of love in particular. At least, I read it in the Platonic sense: Love with a capital L, and ideal form and essential part of the universe.”
― Zadie Smith, Intimations

“She did not feel merely snubbed back in her instinct, but made aware of the pettiness of some part of her, and of human relations, how flawed they are, how despicable, how self-seeking, at their best.”
― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

“I always tell my students: "a style is a means of insisting on something".”
― Zadie Smith, Intimations