People profess to have certain political positions, but their conservatism or liberalism is really the least interesting thing about them.
Interpretation
Political labels are superficial and don't capture the complexity of individuals.
In this quote, Zadie Smith suggests that the political affiliations people claim do not define their entire identity. Instead, she argues that individuals are far more complex than their conservative or liberal labels, highlighting the richness of human experience that transcends political views.
In practice
In a debate about political ideologies, one might use this quote to illustrate that people's beliefs are multi-faceted.
Because immigrants have always been particularly prone to repetition - it's something to do with that experience of moving from West to East or East to West or from island to island. Even when you arrive, you're still going back and forth; your children are going round and round. There's no proper term for it - original sin seems too harsh; maybe original trauma would be better.
You know, you don't expect everyone to be as educated as everyone else or have the same achievements, but you expect at least to be offered at least some of the opportunities, and libraries are the most simple and the most open way to give people access to books.
He did not consider if or how or why he loved them. They were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away.
We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are. Which leads me to my second point: writers do not write what they want, they write what they can.
I think of reading like a balanced diet; if your sentences are too baggy, too baroque, cut back on fatty Foster Wallace, say, and pick up Kafka as roughage.
I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them.
Every brain is civilized, Every nerve is analyzed, Everything is criticized when you are in need.
Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
We desperately need seers who can see through the mist- Christian leaders with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy.
If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can't achieve. Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master carpenter's place. When you handle the master carpenter's tools, chances are that you'll cut your hand.
I dreamed: I am the fish whose flesh is eaten, and because I am fat, it is good.
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