Home / Authors / Donna Tartt

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.

Filter quotes by topic

All Donna Tartt The Secret History Literature Ifs Thinking Writing Love People Want Way Beauty Novel Book Beautiful Death Life Wells Heart Long Loss

Famous Donna Tartt Quotes

“And what does a person with such romantic temperament seek in the study of the classics? "If by romantic you mean solitary and introspective, I think romantics are frequently the best classicists.”

Literature Romantic Classics

Author:Donna Tartt

“What do you think about America?" "Everyone always smiles so big! Well—most people. Maybe not so much you. I think it looks stupid.”

Literature Fiction Literary Fiction Donna Tartt The Goldfinch

Book:The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

“The novel is about five students of classics who are studying with a classics professor, and they take the ideas of the things that they're learning from him a bit too seriously, with terrible consequences.”

Ideas Literature Bits Novel Study Five Students Terrible Consequence Professors

Author:Donna Tartt

“My novels aren't really generated by a single conceptual spark; it's more a process of many different elements that come together unexpectedly over a long period of time.”

Long Different Together Literature Process Novel Periods Elements Sparks Long Periods Of Time

Author:Donna Tartt

“When I'm writing, I am concentrating almost wholly on concrete detail: the color a room is painted, the way a drop of water rolls off a wet leaf after a rain.”

Way Writing Literature Water Rooms Color Rain Details Concrete Wet Leafs Concentrating Drop Of Water

Author:Donna Tartt

“Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?”

Doe Running Literature Dark Middle Flaws Cracks Showy Fatal Flaws

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

Thinking Doe Running Used Literature Dark Middle Mines Cost Longing Flaws Cracks Morbid Picturesque Showy Fatal Flaws

Book:The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“There's an expectation these days that novels - like any other consumer product - should be made on a production line, with one dropping from the conveyor belt every couple of years.”

Should Years Made Literature Lines Novel Products Couple Expectations Productions Consumers These Days Belts Dropping

Author:Donna Tartt

“To really be centered and to really work well and to think about the kinds of things that I need to think about, I need to spend large amounts of time alone.”

Thinking Needs Wells Kind Literature Amount Me Alone Alone Time

Author: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.”

People Long Has Beens Stories Literature Subjects Murder Not Sure Telling Stories

Author:Donna Tartt

“In order for a long piece of work to engage a novelist over an extended period of time, it has to deal with questions that you find very important, that you're trying to work out.”

Trying Long Important Order Literature Deals Pieces Periods Work Out Novelists Engagement

Author:Donna Tartt

“So I'm not a Southern writer in the commonly held sense of the term, like Faulkner or Eudora Welty, who took the South for their entire literary environment and subject matter.”

Matter Literature Term Environment Subjects South Southern Subject Matter

Author:Donna Tartt

“I love the tradition of Dickens, where even the most minor walk-on characters are twitching and particular and alive.”

Character Literature Walks Alive Particular Tradition Minors Dickens Twitching

Author:Donna Tartt

“The job of the novelist is to invent: to embroider, to color, to embellish, to entertain, to make things up. The art of what I do lies not in research or even recollection but primarily in invention.”

Art Jobs Lying Literature Color Research Invention Novelists Recollection

Author:Donna Tartt

“I believe, in a funny way, the job of the novelist is to be out there on the fringes and speaking for an experience that has not really been spoken for.”

Way Believe Jobs Literature I Believe Experience I Believe In Novelists Fringe

Author:Donna Tartt

“Children - if you think back really what it was like to be a child and what it was like to know other children - children lie all the time”

Ifs Thinking Knows Children Lying Literature

Author:Donna Tartt

“But it's for every writer to decide his own pace, and the pace varies with the writer and the work”

Literature Pace Vary

Author:Donna Tartt

“Taking on challenging projects is the way that one grows and extends one's range as a writer, one's technical command, so I consider the time well-spent”

Way Wells Literature Grows Challenges Projects Command Range Take A Chance Aggravation Time Well Spent

Author:Donna Tartt

“I think innocence is something that adults project upon children that's not really there.”

Thinking Children Literature Projects Adults Innocence

Author:Donna Tartt

“Children have very sharp powers of observation - probably sharper than adults - yet at the same time their emotional reactions are murky and much more primitive.”

Children Literature Emotional Adults Reactions Observation Primitive Emotional Reactions

Author:Donna Tartt

“I just finished writing an essay about William Maxwell, an American writer whose work I admire very much.”

Writing Literature Finished Admire Essays American Writer Maxwell

Author:Donna Tartt

“Well, I think storytellers have always found murder a fascinating device.”

Thinking Wells Found Literature Murder Fascinating Devices Storyteller

Author:Donna Tartt

About the Author

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

Related Topics

Donna Tartt The Secret History Literature Ifs Thinking Writing Love People Want Way Beauty Novel Book Beautiful Death Life Wells Heart Long Loss

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Secret HistoryRelated source material

The GoldfinchRelated source material

The Little FriendRelated source material

The Secret History: A NovelRelated source material

Dio di illusioniRelated source material

True GritRelated source material

Similar Authors

Guillermo Cabrera InfanteBrowse related quotes
Irwin ShawBrowse related quotes
Manuel PuigBrowse related quotes
Lynn AbbeyBrowse related quotes
Norman MacCaigBrowse related quotes
Gertrude SteinBrowse related quotes
Jessica SavitchBrowse related quotes
Edwin Louis ColeBrowse related quotes
Lisa GuerreroBrowse related quotes
Marilyn vos SavantBrowse related quotes