Donna Tartt Quotes

I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.

I want to be read, and I certainly want to sell, but I also see my father's eye from Heaven: 'Always write quality. It doesn't matter if you sell; if it's good, it's good - if you capture the complexity of life.'

It is important for poets and writers today to know their shortcomings, and be able to edit their own work as well as reject them if they are not up to their standards.

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions.

The best is the enemy of the good.

I think there's a general misconception that anything written quickly lacks quality, and I don't believe that.

You want the book to be special, and they are not always going to be special, but at least you want that to be the ambition. So the only way that happens is if you are not pressing to write a book.

I don't like slapdash careless prose, and if I saw myself doing it, I would give up writing altogether.

There is good and mediocre writing within every genre.

Writing of that caliber spoils you for any other kind of writing for awhile. But that's probably good.

I am uncompromising to the point of huge dissension in the studio. And it's served me very well. My theory and my philosophy is, 'Compromise breeds mediocrity.' Obviously, you have to pick your battles, and the more success an artist has, the more they want to be involved in their own career, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Fame, money and the size of the market are not very important to me. What is, is writing a book that is worth doing and then publishing it. I don't write books for entertainment, for people to pass the time then throw away.

Nowadays I'm not even sure if newspapers take into account whether a person is a good writer.

I like going after good material, well-written material.

Good is often the enemy of best.

I associated excellence in writing with New York City.

Good writing is good writing, and I'm so happy when I read it.

A lot of authors, judging by their list, will put anything out that they finish... That's the worst model I've heard of in my life. It's just idiotic. Why wouldn't you just wait for the good ones?

Out of the thousand writers huffing and puffing through movieland, there are scarcely fifty men and women of wit and talent... Yet, in a curious way, there is not much difference between the product of a good writer and a bad one. They both have to toe the same mark.

I always want to make sure the book I'm writing is the best book I can deliver.

The reason it takes me so long to make a film, the reason it gets so difficult, is that I'm trying to think of every film as the last one I will ever make so it can be the best it can possibly be. I don't want to have regrets or excuses or think, 'I can do better next time.'

Set the bar high - do the best you possibly can.

Learn to write well, or not to write at all.

Once something is well-written, then everything else is gravy.

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.