It's a terrible thing, what we did, said Francis abruptly. I mean, this man was not Voltaire we killed. But still. It’s a shame. I feel bad about it. - Donna Tartt
What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can't get there any other way? - Donna Tartt
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. - Donna Tartt
...life - whatever else it is - is short... maybe even if we're not always so glad to be here, it's our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. - Donna Tartt
Richard Papen: As it happened, I knew Gartrell. He was a bad painter and a vicious gossip, with a vocabulary composed almost entirely of obscenities, gutteral verbs, and the world "postmodernist. - Donna Tartt
He looked very tired, a regard which manifested itself not in dark circles, or pallor, but a dreamy and bright-cheeked sadness. - Donna Tartt
First rule of restorations. Never do what you can’t undo. - Donna Tartt
Everyone basically has one aria to sing over their entire life. - Donna Tartt
It seems to me that psychology is only another word for what the ancients called fate. - Donna Tartt
I believe having a great diversity of teachers is harmful and confusing for a young mind, in the same way I believe that it is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially - Donna Tartt
I believehaving a great diversity of teachers is harmful and confusing for a young mind, in the same way I believe that it is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially - Donna Tartt
Even now I remember those pictures, like pictures in a storybook one loved as a child. Radiant meadows, mountains vaporous in the trembling distance; leaves ankle-deep on a gusty autumn road; bonfires and fog in the valleys; cellos, dark window-panes, snow. - Donna Tartt
The idea of losing control is one that fascinates controlled people such as ourselves more than almost anything. - Donna Tartt
Fate is cruel but maybe not random. Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn't mean we have to bow and gravel to it. - Donna Tartt