“Well, I do have some maiden aunts that are not quite like the aunts in...” — Donna Tartt Quote

“Well, I do have some maiden aunts that are not quite like the aunts in the book, but I definitely do have a couple of them, and a couple of old aunties.”

“It seemed my whole”

“I love the tradition of Dickens, where even the most minor walk-on characters are twitching and particular and alive.”

“Storytelling and elegant style don't always go hand in hand.”

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

“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.”

“Well, when you grow up in a family situation like in England, you're whole - we call it pub culture, and it is, really. You grow up, you literally come home from work, everyone goes to the pub at 6:30, you drink till 10:30, go home and go to bed. That was our entire life - all my aunts and uncles, and my grandfather drank 'til he was 85.”

“No one ever said, 'Be a doctor.' But because so many members of my extended family - aunts, uncles - were doctors, there was this expectation that I'd probably be a physician.”

“I had a wonderful family including my aunts, uncles and cousins but they've all gone to heaven.”

“I can pinpoint the exact moment when I first began to think about what profession I should go into. It was 1978. I was seven and had just been handed over by the women of my family to the earnest and self-important gatherings of the men. I was no longer the responsibility of my aunts and older female cousins. I was now a man. This was a tragedy.”

“I shared a room with my parents until I was 7, and I lived with my uncles and aunts and my cousins and my grandfather... so the house was always full of people.”