SOURCE: Smith, Zadie, and Bob Graham. “Fame Gives Writer Lots to Chew On.” San Francisco Chronicle (13 June 2000): E1.

In the following interview, Smith discusses the tone of White Teeth, the effects of fame, and the differences between English and American attitudes on race and class.

Everybody starts with white teeth. They might turn yellow, fall out or get knocked out, but that's what everybody starts with, or used to. Now everybody must be starting with White Teeth. It's the international blockbuster novel by Zadie Smith.

Everybody starts with white teeth? Is that what the title means?

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Smith says.

Her seriously comic, comically serious novel is about ethnic identity in multicultural society. “White teeth” were the first words Smith, now 24, put down when she began the novel in 1997. They became the title, and she just went on from there for 448 vivid pages...