# Quote — Zadie Smith, On Beauty

> He was bookish, she was not; he was theoretical, she political. She called a rose a rose. He called it an accumulation of cultural and biological constructions circulating around the mutually attracting binary poles of nature/artifice.

- Author: [Zadie Smith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zadie-smith.md)
- Book: [On Beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zadie-smith/on-beauty.md)
- Page: 225
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zadie_Smith#On_Beauty_(2005)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/zadie-smith/on-beauty/he-was-bookish

## More from this book

> You don't have favorites among your children but you do have allies.

p. 167 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zadie-smith/on-beauty/you-dont-have.md)

> The greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free.

p. 424 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zadie-smith/on-beauty/the-greatest-lie.md)

> He traced the genealogy of the feeling

p. 179 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zadie-smith/on-beauty/he-traced-the.md)