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Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt Quotes

Writer

Donna Tartt is an American author known for her unique narrative style and profound psychological descriptions. Her works are characterized by complex characters and captivating plots. Her debut novel, 'The Goldfinch,' received widespread acclaim and won multiple literary awards.

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Famous Donna Tartt Quotes

“It's not as if we're running a hospital for sick children down here, let's put it that way. Where's the nobility in patching up a bunch of old tables and chairs? Corrosive to the soul, quite possibly. I've seen too many estates not to know that. Idolatry! Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn't it? And isn't the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty? Those first images that crack your heart wide open and you spend the rest of your life chasing, or trying to recapture, in one way or another?”

Life Heart Soul Care Beauty Objects Saving Nobility Destroy Connect Patch Up Corrosive

Book:The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

“Death is the mother of beauty, and what is beauty? Terror.”

Beauty Beauty Of Life

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“She was breathing hard, and deep circles of red burned high on her bright cheeks; in all my life I had never seen anyone so maddeningly beautiful as she was at that moment.”

Beauty Beauty In Life

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. [...] We want to be devoured by it, to hide ourselves in that fire which refines us.”

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“I think about it quite a bit, actually, that look on his face. I think about a lot of things. I think about the first time I ever saw a birch tree; about the last time I saw Julian; about the first sentence that I ever learned in Greak. χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά... Beauty is harsh...”

Beauty Redemption Greek Dark Academia Disillusion Loss Of Self

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“I think about it quite a bit, actually, that look on his face. I think about a lot of things. I think about the first time I ever saw a birch tree; about the last time I saw Julian; about the first sentence that I ever learned in Greak. χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά. Beauty is harsh. ― Donna Tartt, The Secret History”

Beauty Redemption Greek Dark Academia Disillusion Loss Of Self

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“...real age, as I came to see from the genuine pieces that passed through my hands, was variable, crooked, capricious, singing here and sullen there, warm asymmetrical streaks on a rosewood cabinet from where a slant of sun had struck it while the other side was as dark as the day it was cut.”

Age Beauty Ageing

Book:The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

“Maybe that's why I tend to equate physical beauty with qualities with which it has absolutely nothing to do. I see a pretty mouth or a moody pair of eyes and imagine all sorts of deep affinities, private kinships. Never mind that half a dozen jerks are clustered round the same person, just because they've been duped by the same pair of eyes.”

Love Beauty Attraction Idealism Associations

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“love is a cruel and terrible master.”

Philosophy Love Quotes Beauty Terror The Secret History

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“and what could be more terrifying and beautiful to souls like the Greeks or our own than to lose control completely; to throw off the chains of being for an instant; to shatter the accident of our mortal selves.”

Beauty Terror Greek Gods Bourbon

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“...spent the summer drowsing on his rooftop deck, smoking cigarettes, reading Proust, dreaming about death and indolence and beauty and time.”

Death Time Beauty Indolence Proust

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

About the Author

Born: December 23, 1963
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 339

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Books & Sources

The Secret HistoryRelated source material

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The Little FriendRelated source material

The Secret History: A NovelRelated source material

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