On October 4, 2018, author Zadie Smith reflected on writing, the state of the novel, and many other things:

On whether the novel will persist, or be replaced by some other form: “I think it’s already happening now… I’m not one of those people who is desperate about the state of the novel.”

On radical empathy: “I think women are extremely able to imagine themselves into other people’s lives.”

On different forms of storytelling: “I think of actors as writers with less control over themselves.”

On social media: “To add another layer of curation, of idea, I can’t live in that. I can’t do it. My feeling of life is so foreshortened, that there isn’t time to get to the next thing before I go, that the idea of spending that time inside something Mark Zuckerberg made, is just – I can’t do it.”

On Brexit: “If it wasn’t such a disastrous thing for so many people’s lives, it is comic instruction.  They’re having to lay down medical supplies as if we’re in a war. they’ll have to redo electricity between Northern Ireland and England, because there’ll be no electricity for Northern Ireland. Planes might not land. A comedian described it as watching a country punch itself in the face. It’s absolutely extraordinary, I’ve been away for so long that it has an air of surreality to me but of course to all my family, and everyone else over there, it’s unbelievable.”