Zadie Smith

And anyone listening to this who is my age will know that to be true.

There's no reason for anyone who's 20 to know that.

I didn't know it.

But it is true.

And so...

That means to me that a certain amount of care around the issue of age should be practiced on both sides because it's one of those deep delusions that you don't realize you're in until it's too late.

I mean, that's one thing I particularly love is language transformation.

So I and I live in a neighborhood where slang of all kind is how everyone speaks.

It's fascinating.

So I get updates, you know, practically weekly on what the word for cool is or what the word for a hot person is or, you know, it transforms.

It feels like monthly.

I love all of that.

I think the one that irritates my children most is that a lot of British people of my generation and maybe particularly English

ex-ravers i used to love raving and a lot of people in this country did we have the habit of saying tune whenever a good song is anywhere and that is mortifying to my children i think many children tune spelt c-h-o-o-n so i try not to say that in public is that a british thing it's very british yeah yeah oh okay because i i haven't heard that one no it's british and and for the club crowd yeah

No, I like lady, actually.

Right.

I mean, the creativity of street level language is something that I just find endlessly thrilling.

It's a little sad as you get older as a writer because you can't include it.

Like this kind of slang and street language is in my early novels is antique now.

And so you have a choice.