Donna Tartt Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• 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.

  Donna Tartt

  Book, Reading, Being Alone

• 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.

  Donna Tartt

  New York, Moving, Writing

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

  Donna Tartt

  Fun, Book, Writing

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

  Donna Tartt

  Book, Writing, Mediocre

• 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

  Rain, Writing, Color

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

  Donna Tartt

  Writing, Literature, Admire

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

  Donna Tartt

  Children, Writing, Thinking

• 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.

  Donna Tartt

  Writing, Thinking, Editors

  Interview with Michael Pietsch, www.slate.com. October 11, 2013.

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

  Donna Tartt

  Writing, Two, Long

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

  Donna Tartt

  Writing, People, Influence

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

  Donna Tartt

  Writing, Long, Process

• 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

  Lonely, Writing, Mean

  "Author Donna Tartt discusses her literary career and her latest novel, The Little Friend". "Talk of the Nation" with Lynn Neary, www.languageisavirus.com. November 5, 2002.

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