SOURCE: Smith, Zadie, and Lynell George. “Author Purposeful with Prose, Fidgety with Fame.” Los Angeles Times (26 June 2000): E1.

In the following interview, Smith discusses the commercial and critical success of White Teeth, and addresses the common misconception that her novel is about race.

Staring at the face of it, Zadie Smith is none too pleased.

She's not thrilled about all this hurtling back and forth across time, ocean and continents. Nor was she overjoyed to learn that she can't smoke in her Beverly Hills hotel room—or anywhere for that matter in this too sunny and strange take on a metropolis.

Nor is she happy to be caught—pinned and wriggling—at the center of curiosity's storm. Talking about herself, about her work, what it means—all this fuss of a book tour is testing not her mettle but her patience.

“It's just like holding your breath for...