JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Every week, a famous guest draws a card from the Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. This week, author Zadie Smith reflects on the 25th anniversary of her debut novel, "White Teeth," and she says the book has amassed an audience that she's proud of.
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ZADIE SMITH: The thing I love about it is that teenagers love it. Teenagers pick it up and read it. And to me, that's exactly where it should be. That is a book for young people. And all the books for young people that exist, from "Catcher" to - I don't know, something like "Sula," Toni Morris (ph) - I love those books.
SUMMERS: She talked to Wild Card host Rachel Martin about life since then and how her relationship with time has shifted over the years.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What emotion do you understand better than all the others?
SMITH: Gosh. Regret (laughter).
MARTIN: Yeah.
SMITH: I think that's the one I know very well. Yeah.
MARTIN: May I ask why?
SMITH: I think people's lives are so profoundly shot through with regret, and you don't - they don't talk about it very often, particularly in America. It's like a failure - right? - to...
MARTIN: Oh, it's like a four-letter word. And when people bring up the idea of regret, you...
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Don't admit it because it's made you who you are, etc., etc., etc.
SMITH: Yeah, yeah. I'm always hearing people on television saying, no regrets - sorry, not sorry. I'm like, wow, dude...
MARTIN: Yeah, no. I don't believe that for one second.
SMITH: ...I am so sorry.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
SMITH: I am so filled with regret. It must be amazing never to feel sorry.
MARTIN: Right.
SMITH: So yeah, regret is something that I really feel - if only for the simple and selfish fact that you get one life, you know, and...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SMITH: ...I'm so hungry for life that I could live it, like, 10 times. And once, it's - you know, it's a tough deal.
MARTIN: May I ask if you're willing to share a thing that you wish you had done differently or that had gone differently?
SMITH: (Laughter) I just - I honestly - I just wish I was less selfish. Writing is a very selfish thing to have done with your time, and it takes up all the time. And I wish I had done a bit less of it or thought about what else I could have done with - in that time 'cause it's all I did. I just wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote, which is great, but there's a lot of other things in life that you can do apart from that.
MARTIN: Yeah. It's the bummer about time...
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...That it's kind of bound.
SMITH: Yeah. But it's cool. Like, once I realized it, like, I - I've taken steps. You know, I do other things now. I'm out in my community. I'm volunteering. I'm, like, engaged, and...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SMITH: ...It feels so much better than sitting at a desk just writing every day.
MARTIN: Well, it's also lonely, I imagine. Like, just what that work is.
SMITH: It is a little bit lonely. Like, during COVID, when everybody was freaking out, I took it kind of personally 'cause it's like, wait - so the thing you hate is my life?
MARTIN: Is my life, right (laughter).
SMITH: You hate my life, but I've been living my life for 30 years. And to you, it's the worst thing imaginable. I'm like, oh...
MARTIN: To be sequestered at home...
SMITH: ...'Cause I literally do that...
MARTIN: ...With your thoughts.
SMITH: ...Every day. So I did take it a little bit personally, but it was a wake-up call. I was like, this is not normal. People don't enjoy this - this thing that you do every day.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
SMITH: You should try doing something else.
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SUMMERS: You can hear more of that conversation with Zadie Smith on the Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.