“She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.”

Zadie Smith is a British novelist and essayist of the 2000s and 2010s. She is best known for her sharp, culturally observant fiction that explores identity, migration, and community, including novels like *White Teeth* and *On Beauty*. Her essays often examine literature, race, and urban life with wit and intellectual depth.