Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.
Donna TarttIt is easy to see things in retrospect. But I was ignorant then of everything but my own happiness, and I donโt know what else to say except that life itself seemed very magical in those days: a web of symbol, coincidence, premonition, omen. Everything, somehow, fit together; some sly and benevolent Providence was revealing itself by degrees and I felt myself trembling on the brink of a fabulous discovery, as though any morning it was all going to come togetherโmy future, my past, the whole of my lifeโand I was going to sit up in bed like a thunderbolt and say oh! oh! oh!
Donna TarttI've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.
Donna TarttEven if you need, and want, a second opinion, it can be dangerous to have people telling you what they think you ought to add, or cut, before you've even finished telling your story. One loses heart; one loses energy and interest. Or at least I do.
Donna Tartt