Hanging around Quote by Donna Tartt
““I wrote these letters in the mornings before work, in the library, during my sessions of prolonged loitering in Commons, where I remained every evening until asked to leave by the janitor. It seemed my whole life was composed of these disjointed fractions of time, hanging around in one public place and then another, as if I were waiting for trains that never came. And, like one of those ghosts who are said to linger around depots late at night, asking passersby for the timetable of the Midnight Express that derailed twenty years before, I wandered from light to light until that dreaded hour when all the doors closed and, stepping from the world of warmth and people and conversation overheard, I felt the old familiar cold twist through my bones again and then it was all forgotten, the warmth, the lights; I had never been warm in my life, ever.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Goldfinch, 2013
Life feels fragmented, wandering between places and waiting for elusive moments that never arrive.
In simple terms: Life is a series of disjointed, waiting for something.
Key Takeaway
Embrace uncertainty and seek connection.
Themes
loneliness
search
waiting
Mood
nostalgic
introspective
Type
literary
reflective
When to use this quote
- commuting
- library study
- night walks
Key Concepts
existentialism
memory
space
Questions to Reflect On
- What patterns emerge in your own fragmented moments?
- How can you create intentional pauses?
A Different Perspective
The narrative may romanticize aimlessness, overlooking agency.
![“[T]hough the darkness sometimes lifted just enough so I could construe my surroundings, familiar shapes solidifying like bedroom furniture at dawn, my relief was never more than temporary because somehow the full morning never came, things always went black before I could orient myself and there I…” quote by Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ea6/donna-tartt-391_dark_t-hough-the-darkness-sometimes-lifted-ju_486126.jpg)
