When I'm writing, I am concentrating almost wholly on concrete detail: the color a room is painted, the way a drop of water rolls off a wet leaf after a rain.
Donna Tartt

To really be centered and to really work well and to think about the kinds of things that I need to think about, I need to spend large amounts of time alone.
Donna Tartt

Actually, I enjoy the process of writing a big long novel.
Donna Tartt

Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that's a hard lesson of reality.
Donna Tartt

But it's for every writer to decide his own pace, and the pace varies with the writer and the work.
Donna Tartt

The Little Friend is a long book. It's also completely different from my first novel: different landscape, different characters, different use of language and diction, different approach to story.
Donna Tartt

I've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.
Donna Tartt

In order for a long piece of work to engage a novelist over an extended period of time, it has to deal with questions that you find very important, that you're trying to work out.
Donna Tartt