Quotes from Donna Tartt

All that blind, infantile hunger to save and be saved, to repeat the past and make it different, had somehow attached itself, ravenously, to her.

I became expert at making myself invisible.

Her eyes--lined with black makeup--stared blankly at the ceiling; and her tan was obviously sprayed on since her skin had a healthy apricot glow even though the top of her head was missing.

those guys who wore a wedding ring that didn't really look like a wedding ring—or maybe it wasn't a wedding ring at all and he was just super-proud of his Celtic

it's our task to immerse ourselves...while keeping eyes and hearts open...

Where does it ever say, anywhere, that only bad can come from bad actions? Maybe sometimes — the wrong way is the right way? You can take the wrong path and it still comes out where you want to be?

Às vezes queremos o que queremos mesmo sabendo que isso vai nos matar. Não podemos escapar de quem somos.

Because—the line of beauty is the line of beauty. It doesn't matter if it's been through the Xerox machine a hundred times.

Tenemos el arte para no morir de la verdad.   NIETZSCHE

I waited, uncertainly, my eyes on the Japanese chest. It was a beauty, a prize for a retired sea-captain's home in backwater Boston: scrimshaw and cowrie shells, Old Testament samplers cross-stitched by unmarried sisters, the smell of whale oil burning in the evenings, the stillness of growing old.

enough to show the black

There is to me about this place a smell of rot, the smell of rot that ripe fruit makes. Nowhere, ever, have the hideous mechanics of birth and copulation and death—those monstrous upheavals of life that the Greeks call miasma, defilement—been so brutal or been painted up to look so pretty; have so many people put so much faith in lies and mutability and death death death.

Fabelhaft. Having the best fun ever. One thing at a time. Aspirins. Cold water from the minibar.

Patch of sunlight on a yellow wall. The loneliness that separates every living creature from every other living creature. Sorrow inseparable from joy.

George Sanders's had been the best, an Old Hollywood classic, my father had known it by heart and liked to quote from it. Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored.

belki onun tepkisi de benimki gibi olur, diyordum içimden. belki bütün bu cinayetleri asl?nda olduÄŸu gibi bencilce yap?lm?? bir kötülük olarak görmek yerine kötü, ac?kl? ve hatta pitoresk bir vahÅŸet olarak görürdü. (''ben hayatta her ÅŸeyi yapt?m,'' diye böbürlenmez miydi yaÅŸl? tolstoy, ''bir adam bile öldürdüm.'')

Harriet] made them dress up in sheets and act out pageantry from the New Testament, in which she herself took the role of Jesus. The Last Supper was her favorite.

sen ona hangi yüzünü gösterirsen o da büyük bir samimiyet ve derinlik illüzyonu yaratarak sana deÄŸiÅŸtirmeye gerek bile duymadan senin ayn?n? yans?t?yor, oysa asl?nda kendisi t?pk? bir ayna kadar k?r?lgan ve s??.

Nil sub sole novum [...] Qualsiasi azione, nella pienezza del tempo, sprofonda nel nulla.

I hope we're all ready to leave the phenomenal world, and enter into the sublime?

I looked at Camilla, her face bright in the sun, and thought of that line from the Iliad that I love so much, about Pallas Athene and the terrible eyes shining. And if beauty is terror, said Julian, then what is desire? We think we have many desires but in fact we only have one. What is it? To live said Camilla To live forever said Bunny, chin cupped in palm The teakettle began to whistle.

Don't pay any attention to her," Harriet said to her sister, between her teeth. "Old bitch." Hely had never heard Harriet swear before. A wicked shiver of pleasure fluttered down the back of his neck. "Bitch," he repeated, more audibly, the bad word delicious on his tongue.

continuò Julian, <>

doesn't always follow from good deeds, nor bad deeds result from bad, does it? Even the wise and good cannot see the end of all actions.