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Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt Quotes

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Famous Donna Tartt Quotes

“For me - showing a half-finished manuscript is tricky. Just as a bird will get spooked and abandon her eggs if some outside party comes around and makes too much noise or pokes around the nest too intrusively - well, that's what it's like for me if I show work too early and I get a lot of editorial suggestions at the wrong time.”

IfsWellsShowsPartyHalfToo MuchBirdFinishedNoiseAbandonEggsSuggestionsNestsTrickyManuscriptsEditorialsPokeWrong Time
Author:Donna Tartt
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“I hate Gucci,' said Francis. 'Do you?' said Henry, glancing up from his reverie. 'Really? I think it's rather grand.' 'Come on, Henry.' 'Well, it's so expensive, but it's so ugly too, isn't it? I think they make it ugly on purpose. And yet people buy it out of sheer perversity.' 'I don't see what you think is grand about that.' 'Anything is grand if it's done on a large enough scale,' said Henry.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWellsSaidDoneEnoughPurposeHateI HateUglyScalesExpensiveSheerReverieGucciPerversity
Author:Donna Tartt
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“That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”

IfsHeartMeanEyeWinningFateDyingGloryTasksPrivilegeGladMidstBowsWade
Author:Donna Tartt
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“What if one happens to be possessed of a heart that can’t be trusted—? What if the heart, for its own unfathomable reasons, leads one willfully and in a cloud of unspeakable radiance away from health, domesticity, civic responsibility and strong social connections and all the blandly-held common virtues and instead straight towards a beautiful flare of ruin, self-immolation, disaster?”

IfsHeartSelfReasonHappensBeautifulStrongSocialCommonResponsibilityVirtueConnectionsDestructionCloudsDisasterRuinsWhat IfPossessedTrustedCivicsRadianceUnspeakableUnfathomableFlareDomesticityCivic Responsibility
Author:Donna Tartt
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“The firelight magnified our shadows, glinted off the silver, flickered high upon the walls; its reflection roared orange in the windowpanes as if a city were burning outside. The whoosh of the flames was like a flock of birds, trapped and beating in a whirlwind near the ceiling. And I wouldn't have been at all surprised if the long mahogany banquet table, draped in linen, laden with china and candles and fruit and flowers, had simply vanished into thin air, like a magic casket in a fairy story.”

IfsLongHas BeensStoriesCitiesMagicAirFlowerWallBirdReflectionShadowTablesFruitChinaBurningFlamesFairySilverCandleTrappedOrangeCeilingsFlocksBanquetsWhirlwindThin AirLinenCasketsFairy StoriesWindowpaneMahogany
Book:The Secret History
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