“He’s telling you that living things don’t last—it’s all temporary. Death in life.” — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
Death is the mother of beauty,” said Henry. “And what is beauty?” “Terror. — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“There was a horrible, erratic thumping in my chest, as if a large bird was trapped inside my ribcage and beating itself… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Twelve years after Robin's death, no one knew any more about how he had ended up hanged from a tree in his… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“I would be less frightened of death (not just my own death but Welty’s death, Andy’s death, Death in general) if I… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Also they have rattlesnakes, and the death penalty, which I think is primitive and unethical” — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“He’s telling you that living things don’t last—it’s all temporary. Death in life. That’s why they’re called natures mortes. Maybe you don’t… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“A goodbye at the gate," said Hobie. He seemed to be talking partly to himself. "That's what he would have wanted. The… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Death is the mother of beauty,” said Henry. “And what is beauty?” “Terror.” “Well said,” said Julian. “Beauty is rarely soft or… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“That Mossberg," Boris said to me, accepting the bottle passed over the front seat. "Evil dirty thing. Sawed off--? sprays pellets here… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death)… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Whenever you see flies or insects in a still life—a wilted petal, a black spot on the apple—the painter is giving you… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Could it be because it reminds us that we are alive, of our mortality, of our individual souls- which, after all, we… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
There is to me about this place a smell of rot, the smell of rot that ripe fruit makes. Nowhere, ever, have… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Certainly I would be less frightened of death (not just my own death but Welty's death, Andy's death, Death in general) if… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“It wasn’t the kind of thing you could ask but still I wanted to know. Did she have nightmares too? Crowd fears?… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“But Robin: their dear little Robs. More than ten years later, his death remained an agony; there was no glossing any detail;… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Her gust of laughter had a self-propelling recklessness I knew all too well from wild nights with Boris, an edge of giddiness… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“I accepted all this counsel politely, with a glassy smile and a glaring sense of unreality. Many adults seemed to interpret this… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair. But the painting has… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“I was deluded, and I knew it. Worse: my love for Pippa was muddied-up below the waterline with my mother, with my… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“Her death the dividing mark: Before and After. And though it’s a bleak thing to admit all these years later, still I’ve… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“What are the dead, anyway, but waves and energy? Light shining from a dead star? That, by the way, is a phrase… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“And maybe I was coping awfully well, I don’t know. Certainly I wasn’t howling aloud or punching my fist through windows or… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“The description of shock and grief hot so close to home: "but sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
“With the news about Andy, it was like someone had thrown an x-ray switch and reversed everything into photographic negative, so that… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
I hope we're all ready to leave the phenomenal world, and enter into the sublime? — Donna Tartt Copy Share
And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
And the flavor of Pippa's kiss--bittersweet and strange--stayed with me all the way back uptown, swaying and sleepy as I sailed home on the… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
There's an expectation these days that novels - like any other consumer product - should be made on a production line, with one dropping… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“A month or two before, I would have been appalled at the idea of any murder at all. But that Sunday afternoon, as I… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
Always remember, the person we’re really working for is the person who’s restoring the piece a hundred years from now. He’s the one we… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“The silence between us was happy and strange, connected by the cord and the icy voices thinly echoing. “You don’t have to talk,” she… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that one is a being separate from all the world, that no one and… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“You didn’t meet many people who moved freely through the world with such a vigorous contempt for it and at the same time such… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“maybe that’s what’s waiting for us at the end of the journey, a majesty unimaginable until the very moment we find ourselves walking through… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“lights and moods and seasons was to see it a thousand different ways and to keep it shut in the dark—a thing made of… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
“Upon meeting Julian Morrow, one has the impression that he is a man of extraordinary sympathy and warmth. But what you call his 'Asiatic… — Donna Tartt Copy Share
