Zadie Smith Quotes about Past

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Future, Past, Perfect

In the end, your past is not my past and your truth is not my truth and your solution - is not my solution.

Past, Truth Is, Ends

Zadie Smith (2003). “White Teeth”, p.150, Vintage

Generally, women can't do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like removing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable.

Zadie Smith

Past, Men, Fake

Zadie Smith (2003). “White Teeth”, p.15, Vintage

But surely to tell these tall tales and others like them would be to spread the myth, the wicked lie, that the past is always tense and the future, perfect.

Zadie Smith

Lying, Past, Perfect

Zadie Smith (2000). “White teeth”

And now the moment. Such a moment has a peculiar character. It is brief and temporal indeed, like every moment; it is transient as all moments are; it is past, like every moment in the next moment. And yet it is decisive, and filled with the eternal. Such a moment ought to have a distinctive name; let us call it the Fullness of Time.

Zadie Smith

Character, Past, Names

She had that thing most people don't have - curiosity. She might not have always got the right answers, but she wanted to ask the questions. It's very hard if you are interested in ideas and all that, ideas and the philosophies of the past, it's very hard to find someone around here to really talk to. That's the tragedy of the thing really I mean, when you think about it. Certainly I can't find anyone around here to talk to anymore. And for a woman it's even harder you see. They can feel very trapped - because of the patriarchy. I do feel everyone needs to have these little chats now and then.

Zadie Smith

Philosophy, Mean, Past

It was a kiss from the past.

Zadie Smith

Kissing, Past

Zadie Smith (2006). “On Beauty”, p.431, Penguin UK

Zadie Smith Quotes about Past

You May Also Like: