Zadie Smith: I don't know when I read men any more'

"I have read some really good ones recently, actually by millennial men, really fascinating, balls-to-the-wall novels. I think they've got nothing to lose so they're like, let's do this."

"Being a woman and getting older, you become enormously impatient with anything other than other older women. All I read now is Helen Garner because I want wisdom."

"What's happened since then in women's art is so cheering and so extraordinary, that I just wanted to log it."

"I remember sitting in my room as a teenager, trying to think of female writers who hadn't been dead 250 years, and it was hard."

Zadie Smith shared her reading preferences, noting a shift towards female authors as she ages. She expressed admiration for contemporary male writers but primarily reads women for wisdom. In her latest book, Dead and Alive, she reflects on the progress of women's art since her birth in 1975. Smith recalls the difficulty of finding contemporary female writers in her youth and highlights the importance of female artists like Joan Didion and Kara Walker. Her reading choices now focus on older women, seeking depth and insight.

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