"No one’s a garbage fire. Everybody is a human being."
A roundup of writerly links worth devouring
We all have our great lights—writers who put our hearts on pause. We marvel over the worlds they’ve created and we’re forever desperate to fall, head-first, rapturously into anything new. Zadie Smith is one of those lights for me and I can’t wait to hide away with her latest book. And can we talk about how her essay, “That Crafty Feeling” still influences me to this day? LET’S. From a recent Vogue feature:
“The last thing I would want is to be observed by others 24/7.” Have people ever tried to make her get Twitter? Her publishers, maybe? “No one’s ever tried to make me do anything, to be fair.”
Coming out of the mouth of a more austere author, these opinions might register as somewhat hectoring. Out of Smith’s—the Willesden accent lurking in a few dropped t’s and throaty dunnos*—*they come across as persuasive. She wants the world to do better. She wants you to do better.
“The key is not to treat people as if they are objects,” she opines. “Once you start saying, ‘I just can’t with,’ you’ve forgotten what a person is. ‘This person is a garbage fire.’ No one’s a garbage fire. Everybody is a human being.”
Lauren Groff, who also has a new book out, chats a bit about writer’s block:
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