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. Donna Tartt Read Quote
I just finished writing an essay about William Maxwell, an American writer whose work I admire very much. Donna Tartt Read Quote
The Little Friend is a long book. It’s also completely different from my first novel: different landscape, different characters, different use of language and diction, different approach to story. Donna Tartt Read Quote
I love the tradition of Dickens, where even the most minor walk-on characters are twitching and particular and alive. Donna Tartt Read Quote
Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that’s a hard lesson of reality. Donna Tartt Read Quote
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. Donna Tartt Read Quote
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. Donna Tartt Read Quote