Real isn't what they try to tell you. Time isn't. Grown-ups hammer down all these markers, bells, schedules, coffee-breaks, to stake down time so you'll start believing it's something small and mean, something that scrapes flake after flake off of everything you love till there's nothing left; to stake you down so you don't lift off and fly away, somersaulting… — Tana French Copy Share
Now that's a concept that's always fascinated me: the real world. Only a very specific subset of people use the term, have you noticed? To me, it seems self-evident that everyone lives in the real world - we all breathe real oxygen, eat real food, the earth under our feet feels equally solid to all of us. But clearly these… — Tana French Copy Share
It's easy to slide into believing you're the hypnotist here, the mirage master, the smart cookie who knows what's real and how all the tricks are done. The fact is you're still just another slack-jawed mark in the audience. No matter how good you are, this world is always going to be better at this game. It's more cunning than… — Tana French Copy Share
I've been fascinated by mysteries for as long as I can remember. Real, fictional, solved, unsolved, I don't care; they all fascinate… — Tana French Copy Share Image
I am not good at noticing when I'm happy, except in retrospect. My gift, or fatal flaw, is for nostalgia. I have… — Tana French Copy Share Image
If you're too lucky, it can be very easy to lack the ability to believe that other people's lived experience is real… — Tana French Copy Share Image
Your character is always right. No real person thinks they're being stupid or misguided or bigoted or evil or just plain wrong… — Tana French Copy Share Image
“...the solitude was intoxicating. On my first night there I lay on my back on the sticky carpet for hours, in the murky orange pool of city glow coming through the window, smelling heady curry spices spiraling across the corridor and listening to two guys outside yelling at each other in Russian and someone practicing stormy flamboyant violin somewhere, and… — Tana French Copy Share
“I remember this country back when I was growing up. We went to church, we ate family suppers around the table, and it would never even have crossed a kid's mind to tell an adult to fuck off. There was plenty of bad there, I don't forget that, but we all knew exactly where we stood and we didn't break… — Tana French Copy Share
“That house shimmered in my mind like some fairy fort that appeared for one day in a lifetime, tantalizing and charged, with those four… — Tana French Copy Share Image
“It would take a while to occur to him that my rules had sweet fuck-all in common with his.” — Tana French Copy Share Image
I love writing. I feel ridiculously lucky that this is what I get to do all day. — Tana French Copy Share Image
“…out here in the real world, my man, you would be amazed how seldom murder has to break into people’s lives. Ninety-nine times out… — Tana French Copy Share Image
“Before I could get my bearings he was on top of me and shoving my face down into the dirt. He was bigger and ten times stronger than me. Earth pressed on my eyelids, earth filled my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. I almost went with it. I almost relaxed all my aching muscles and let him guide me down, among… — Tana French Copy Share
We think of mortality so little these days... I thought of the stern Victorian determination to keep death in mind, the uncompromising tombstones. Remember,… — Tana French Copy Share Image
I read a lot. I always have, but in those two years I gorged myself on books with a voluptuous, almost erotic gluttony. I would go to the local library and take out as many as I could, and then lock myself in the bedsit and read solidly for a week. I went for old books, the older the better--Tolstoy,… — Tana French Copy Share
“For ten years Dublin’s been changing faster than our minds can handle. The economic boom has given us too many people with helicopters and… — Tana French Copy Share Image
When we can't see a pattern, we fit pieces together until one takes shape, because we have to. — Tana French Copy Share Image
“Stephen shrugged. “Yeah. Well. I said I would.” “Ah. Are we having issues?” “This feels sleazy.” “I promise I’ll respect you in the morning.” — Tana French Copy Share Image
