Nikyatu Jusu
Zadie Smith ON WRITING
“It makes me sad sometimes when I read in reviews, critics saying, “Oh, these editors, they just let Zadie write whatever she likes.” And it’s so untrue. Twenty people edited this book, over and over again, and if it remains crap, it’s my fault. I don’t want the editors to be blamed. All I can say is that it was much worse before. I edit and edit and edit and edit and edit … The last section I rewrote entirely. Because after everybody read it, there was this horrible radio silence. I had to get it out of them, mostly from friends, because friends don’t want to be mean. But nobody liked it. It wasn’t good. I knew it wasn’t, but I just had a little hope that maybe I could make it work. Because I had been working for so long, I wanted to go on holiday. And I just thought maybe everyone would say, “It’s great! Print!” And when they didn’t, and I had a very childish, throwing-the-toys-out-of-the-pram reaction, I thought, “You know what? Fuck it. I have a job at NYU. I don’t need to write this book. Forget about it.” Really it was Nick who said, “Don’t do that.”