It's not as if we're running a hospital for sick children down here, let's put it that way. Where's the nobility in patching up a bunch of old tables and chairs? Corrosive to the soul, quite possibly. I've seen too many estates not to know that. Idolatry! 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? Those first images that crack your heart wide open and you spend the rest of your life chasing, or trying to recapture, in one way or another?

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About Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt was American novelist and writer. Donna Louise Tartt is an American novelist. She wrote the novels The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2002), and The Goldfinch (2013), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted into a 2019 film of the same name. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Beauty — Appreciating aesthetics, grace, and the sublime
  • Life — Reflections on the meaning, challenges, and beauty of life
  • Soul — The inner self, consciousness, and spiritual essence

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