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. Donna Tartt dealengageextend Change image and share on social
The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I've read so often that I've internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out. Donna Tartt bookchildhoodessential Change image and share on social
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. Donna Tartt commonlyentireenvironment Change image and share on social
On the other hand, I mean, that is what writers have always been supposed to do, was to rely on their own devices and to - I mean, writing is a lonely business. Donna Tartt businessdevicehand Change image and share on social
The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn't. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice - by work. Donna Tartt giftinnatelearn Change image and share on social
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 colorconcentrateconcrete Change image and share on social
I just finished writing an essay about William Maxwell, an American writer whose work I admire very much. Donna Tartt admireamericanessay Change image and share on social
You are - all your experience just kind of accumulates, and the novel takes a richness of its own simply because it has the weight of all those years that one's put into it. Donna Tartt accumulateexperiencekind Change image and share on social
I love the tradition of Dickens, where even the most minor walk-on characters are twitching and particular and alive. Donna Tartt alivecharacterdicken Change image and share on social
Actually, I enjoy the process of writing a big long novel. Donna Tartt bigenjoylong Change image and share on social