Zadie Smith: Herring

“She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.”

“Any woman who counts on her face is a fool.”

“Then he gave her a kiss on the forehead that felt like a baptism and she wept like a baby.”

“No fiction, no myths, no lies, no tangled webs - this is how Irie imagined her homeland. Becauseis one of the magical fantasy words likeandandthat have now passed into language.”

“You look fine.
- Right. I look fine. Except I don't, said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why Kiki had dreaded having girls: she knew she wouldn't be able to protect them from self-disgust.”

“He had her in his heart, but not always in his mind.”

“That girl,' tutted Alsana as her front door slammed, 'swallowed an encyclopedia and a gutter at the same time.”