Even if it meant that she had failed, she was glad. And if what she'd wanted had been impossible from the start, still there was a certain lonely comfort in the fact that she'd known it was impossible and had gone ahead and done it anyway. Donna Tartt More Quotes by Donna Tartt More Quotes From Donna Tartt I'm not sure whay I've been drawn to this subject, except that murder is a subject that has always drawn people for as long as people have been telling stories. Donna Tartt literature long people I think it's hard to write about children and to have an idea of innocence. Donna Tartt writing children thinking I hope we're all ready to leave the phenomenal world, and enter into the sublime? Donna Tartt phenomenal sublime world But romantic vision can also lead one away from certain very hard, ugly truths about life that are important to know. Donna Tartt life-is-hard vision romantic It is easy to see things in retrospect. But I was ignorant then of everything but my own happiness, and I don’t know what else to say except that life itself seemed very magical in those days: a web of symbol, coincidence, premonition, omen. Everything, somehow, fit together; some sly and benevolent Providence was revealing itself by degrees and I felt myself trembling on the brink of a fabulous discovery, as though any morning it was all going to come together–my future, my past, the whole of my life–and I was going to sit up in bed like a thunderbolt and say oh! oh! oh! Donna Tartt discovery morning past The trouble is when people read about authors, they don't feel compelled to read the authors' work. Donna Tartt trouble feels people What's mysterious, ambiguous, inexplicable. What doesn't fit into a story, what doesn't have a story. Glint of brightness on a barely-there chain. Patch of sunlight on a yellow wall. The loneliness that separates every living creature from every other living creature. Sorrow inseparable from joy. Donna Tartt wall loneliness yellow I really do work in solitude. Donna Tartt solitude Well, I think storytellers have always found murder a fascinating device. Donna Tartt murder literature thinking Well, I do have some maiden aunts that are not quite like the aunts in the book, but I definitely do have a couple of them, and a couple of old aunties. Donna Tartt aunt couple book There's a big anti-intellectual strain in the American south, and there always has been. We're not big on thought. Donna Tartt bigs intellectual america I began to see new buildings, too, which were connected by futuristic walkways lit from beneath. Long, cool perspectives of modern architecture, rising phosphorescent and eerie from the rubble. Donna Tartt perspective eerie long There's nothing like having a sympathetic reader who asks the right questions, who understands what you're trying to achieve and only wants to make it better. Donna Tartt achieve want trying I think it's especially important for an editor to say what he's enjoying. For a novelist to be told, midstream, what he's doing right can actually influence the unwritten parts of a novel in a positive way - praise helps a writer know what's good about what he's written, what's interesting and exciting, and what to work for in writing the conclusion. Donna Tartt editors writing thinking Lexical variety, eccentric constructions and punctuation, variant spellings, archaisms, the ability to pile clause on clause, the effortless incorporation of words from other languages: flexibility, and inclusiveness, is what makes English great; and diversity is what keeps it healthy and growing, exuberantly regenerating itself with rich new forms and usages. Donna Tartt diversity growing healthy I'd been assured, at age 21 or so, by a well-known editor who saw the first part of The Secret History in what was basically its final form, that it would never be published because "no woman has ever written a successful novel from a male point of view." Donna Tartt editors successful views Even if you need, and want, a second opinion, it can be dangerous to have people telling you what they think you ought to add, or cut, before you've even finished telling your story. One loses heart; one loses energy and interest. Or at least I do. Donna Tartt cutting heart thinking
