In October, Zadie Smith gave a lecture that was the best thing I saw at The New Yorker festival. Didn’t write about her lecture very well in that piece, because when you hear a lecture, you hear it and, well, then it’s over, you can’t revisit the parts you liked or want to think about some more and you certainly can’t recreate it.

Well, the lecture has been published as an essay in the Guardian, and while this published version of the lecture doesn’t have the benefit of (1) her accent, (2) the off-topic photos of movie stars she flashed on the screen in the course of the lecture for the hell of it, or (3) the palpable raptness of a packed auditorium, it does have all the ideas.

Hard to decide what to yank out and quote for you. How about this:

To writers, writing well is not simply a matter of skill, but a question of character. What does it take, after all, to write well? What personal qualities does it require? What personal resources does a bad writer lack? In most areas of human endeavour we are not shy of making these connections between personality and capacity. Why do we never talk about these things when we talk about books?

(Confidential to Julia: Oh, no, I’ve gone and mentioned The New Yorker again. Race you to the comments!)