Zadie Smith Quotes

If you're sensitive, you will have a hard time with me.

If I sleep in and don't run, I'll feel a little bit off because I didn't do what I was supposed to do. But I'm not going to beat myself up because of it. I'll just get right back on track.

I think if you look at exactly where you are, you can't really focus without looking back and forward at the same time.

I think as you get older, you realize there's always going to be critics. Critics are going to win every time because they can change their critique based on the stats and their own personal feelings.

People write fiction in their minds all the time - every time we read a 'human interest' news story, or a true crime tale, we find ourselves fascinated because we're trying to understand why people behave the way they do, why they make the choices they do, how we become who we become.

There is no self-knowledge but an historical one. No one knows what he himself is who does not know his fellow men, especially the most prominent one of the community, the master's master, the genius of the age.

There's pressure to come up with something genius every time. I feel like I keep letting myself down with my Twitter posts. I have to start keeping a journal of rough drafts of prophetic ideas about the world.

It's unrealistic to expect the person you go to for sage advice also to be the person you go out and have a good time with. And it's unlikely that he or she will be the same person who's pushing you and motivating you to do more every day, like a coach or manager does.

I don't mean to criticize anyone in any way that I wouldn't criticize myself. I think people should have fun, and have a good time, and enjoy the luck that we have to be lazy and dwell in consumerism. But I think that it's a balance. And our job as actors is empathy.

I realise that every time my face is on TV or I'm playing in a tournament, that I am a role model for a lot of people and a lot of kids do look up to me. I try to do my best in that regard and put myself across as honestly and as modestly as possible, as well.

One way to stay grounded in the entertainment industry is to surround yourself with very good people that will constantly remind you how uncool you are.

Your funny gets developed pretty early on. Comedy requires that you understand as much as possible about the viewpoints of all people and everything that's going on around you. It genuinely requires a true point of view, a real sense of your own view of things in the world.

To be a good citizen, it's important to be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see the big picture. If everything you see is rooted in your own identity, that becomes difficult or impossible.

My parents taught me to approach the world critically, but also to approach it with a sense of responsibility.

I have a lot of different traits to my personality, depending on who I'm around, and what the dynamic in the situation is.

I'm curious about people, and I'm curious about getting to the root of where they might be coming from.

I have labored carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions

I'm a human being. I've got opinions, I'm not always right, I'm not always on time, I don't always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.

If you've raged, if you've mistreated somebody, if you've ever thought only about yourself - these are things that all human beings struggle with and judge themselves for.

I will never actually be able to know what it's like to go through life in someone else's body.

I'm trying to stay humble because if I don't keep producing results, all of this goes away, so I want to focus on the people close to me - my family and my team; they mean everything to me.

I always thought I was a good person, a decent person. I never harassed anyone or touched anyone. And you say to yourself, 'Oh, that's good enough,' but yes, I had certain jokes that I always assumed the audience would understand. This is Persona.

I didn't mean to offend anybody. It's my filter. I constantly work on it.

If you don't open your eyes to other people's lives, you can't even begin to understand how the world works at all.

Emotional intelligence is a very important skill set, not just to be happier but also to succeed professionally.