I've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.
Interpretation
Creating art can be a long and arduous process that requires patience and dedication.
Donna Tartt's statement highlights the time and effort involved in the art of novel writing, suggesting that quality often takes precedence over quantity. By emphasizing that her two novels took a decade to complete, she underscores the depth and thought that goes into crafting a meaningful and intricate story, illustrating that great works are not born from haste but from perseverance and commitment to the craft.
In practice
During a speech at a literary festival, one might say, 'As Donna Tartt once noted about her lengthy writing process, true artistry often requires years of dedication.'
Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.
Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?
But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.
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 bus, melting with sorrow and loveliness, a starry ache that lifted me up above the windswept city like a kite: my head in the rainclouds, my heart in the sky.
Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?
The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I’ve read so often that I’ve internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out.
Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.
At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.
Most of Hollywood is about making money - and I love money, but I don't make the films thinking about money.
Never try to make the same record twice, even when people are screaming for the same sound.
When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat.
Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
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