Donna Tartt Writing Quotations

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.

I'd rather write one good book than ten mediocre ones.

I think it's hard to write about children and to have an idea of innocence.

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.

I just finished writing an essay about William Maxwell, an American writer whose work I admire very much.

The first duty of the novelist is to entertain. It is a moral duty. People who read your books are sick, sad, traveling, in the hospital waiting room while someone is dying. Books are written by the alone for the alone.

As much fun as it is to read a book, writing a book is one level deeper than that.

It happened in New York, April 10th, nineteen years ago. Even my hand balks at the date. I had to push to write it down, just to keep the pen moving on the paper. It used to be a perfectly ordinary day, but now it sticks up on the calendar like a rusty nail.

It's hard for me to show work while I'm writing, because other people's comments will influence what happens.

Actually, I enjoy the process of writing a big long novel.

I've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.

I think it's especially important for an editor to say what he's enjoying. For a novelist to be told, midstream, what he's doing right can actually influence the unwritten parts of a novel in a positive way - praise helps a writer know what's good about what he's written, what's interesting and exciting, and what to work for in writing the conclusion.