Something to Do

Zadie Smith, Intimations | Photo: Jonathan VanAntwerpen

“If you make things, if you are an ‘artist’ of whatever stripe, at some point you will be asked — or may ask yourself — ‘why’ you act, sculpt, paint, whatever. In the writing world, this question never seems to get old. In each generation, a few too many people will feel moved to pen an essay called, inevitably, ‘Why I Write’ or ‘Why Write?’ under which title you’ll find a lot of convoluted, more or less self-regarding reasons and explanatio...