And as much as Iโd like to believe thereโs a truth beyond illusion, Iโve come to believe that thereโs no truth beyond illusion. Because, between โrealityโ on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, thereโs a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic.
Donna TarttThe 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.
Donna TarttAlways remember, the person weโre really working for is the person whoโs restoring the piece a hundred years from now. Heโs the one we want to impress.
Donna TarttChildren love secret club houses. They love secrecy even when there's no need for secrecy
Donna TarttSome things are too terrible to grasp at once. Other things - naked, sputtering, indelible in their horror - are too terrible to really grasp ever at all.It is only later, in solitude, in memory that the realization dawns: when the ashes are cold; when the mourners have departed; when one looks around and finds oneself - quite to one's surprise - in an entirely different world.
Donna Tartt