“I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.” —Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“There are such things as ghosts. People everywhere have always known that. And we believe in them every bit as much as Homer did. Only now, we call them by different names. Memory. The unconscious.” — Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“It’s funny, but thinking back on it now, I realize that this particular point in time, as I stood there blinking in the deserted hall, was the one point at which I might have chosen to do something very much different from what I actually did.” — Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially.” — Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.”
— Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.” — Donna Tartt, The Secret History