Zadie Smith Quote

Romance was beyond me: it required a form of personal mystery I couldn't manufacture and disliked in others. I couldn't pretend that my legs do not grow hair or that my body does not excrete a variety of foul substances or that my feet aren't flat as pancakes. I could not flirt and saw no purpose in flirting. I did not mind dressing up for strangers - when out at college parties or if we went up to London for the clubs - but in our rooms, within our intimacy, I could not be a girl, nor could I be anybody's baby, I could only be a female human.