Tracy Chevalier Quotes

• You're so calm and quiet, you never say. But there are things inside you. I see them sometimes, hiding in your eyes.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Eye, Calm, Quiet

  46 Copy quote

• It's those little daily incidents of life that are dramatic, and if you put a frame around it , suddenly they become much bigger and much more important than you ever imagined.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Important, Littles, Dramatic

  "How Do You Find A Story In A Painting?". TED TALK, www.npr.org. June 7, 2013.

  18 Copy quote

• I find that when I come out of the library I'm in what I call the library bliss of being totally taken away from the distractions of life.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Taken, Library, Bliss

  15 Copy quote

• It's a rare book that wins the battle against drooping eyelids.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Inspiring, Book, Reading

  15 Copy quote

• Don't write about what you know - write about what you're interested in. Don't write about yourself - you aren't as interesting as you think.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Writing, Thinking, Interesting

  11 Copy quote

• He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Life, Beautiful, Light

  Tracy Chevalier (1999). “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, E P Dutton

  11 Copy quote

• Yes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Long, Life Is, Enough

  Tracy Chevalier (1999). “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, E P Dutton

  4 Copy quote

• I have consistently loved books that I've read when I've been sick in bed.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Book, Sick, Bed

  7 Copy quote

• Say something worth the words.

  Tracy Chevalier

  4 Copy quote

• The sign of a masterpiece: A painting when there's a lack of resolution.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Motivation, Inspiration, Painting

  8 Copy quote

• Younger women tend to be busier, wearing more layers and more make-up. I don't know if it's because older women are more confident, or just that we don't care any more. But that pared-down approach is the same with the sentences I write; I take out adjectives and adverbs and keep the description to a minimum.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Writing, Adjectives And Adverbs, Care

  7 Copy quote

• We say very little, for we do not need to. We are silent together, each in her own world, knowing the other is just at her back.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Knowing, Together, Needs

  Tracy Chevalier (2010). “Remarkable Creatures: A Novel”, p.182, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• You know I don’t listen to market gossip,” she began, “but it is hard not to hear it when my daughter’s name is mentioned.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Daughter, Names, Gossip

  Tracy Chevalier (1999). “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, E P Dutton

  7 Copy quote

• I wanted to wear the mantle and the pearls. I wanted to know the man who painted her like that.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Men, Pearls, Wanted

  Tracy Chevalier (2012). “Tracy Chevalier 3-Book Collection: Girl With a Pearl Earring, Remarkable Creatures, Falling Angels”, p.52, HarperCollins UK

  4 Copy quote

• I had walked along that street all my life, but had never been so aware that my back was to my home

  Tracy Chevalier

  Home, Streets

  Tracy Chevalier (2009). “Girl With a Pearl Earring”, p.14, HarperCollins UK

  7 Copy quote

• So many (too many) books are published every year, and it seems everyone is writing a book. Perhaps we should all be reading more and writing less!

  Tracy Chevalier

  Book, Reading, Writing

  7 Copy quote

• I have spent my life waiting for something to happen,’ she said. ‘And I have come to understand that nothing will. Or it already has, and I blinked during that moment and it's gone. I don't know which is worse — to have missed it or to know there is nothing to miss.’ Falling Angels

  Tracy Chevalier

  Fall, Angel, Waiting

  5 Copy quote

• I didn't move. I've learned from years of experience that dogs and falcons and ladies come back to you if you stay where you are.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Dog, Moving, Years

  Tracy Chevalier (2004). “The Lady and the Unicorn: A Novel”, p.13, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

• Over his shoulder I saw a star fall. It was me.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Stars, Fall, Saws

  4 Copy quote

• My father was often impatient during March, waiting for winter to end, the cold to ease, the sun to reappear. March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Father, Winter, Ice

  Tracy Chevalier (1999). “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, E P Dutton

  6 Copy quote

• Normally book ideas come to me in a moment.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Book, Ideas, Moments

  "Tracy Chevalier: 'Slavery has to be raised until it's put to bed'". Interview with Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. March 16, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

• Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Reading, Eye, Appreciate

  4 Copy quote

• That's how fossil hunting is: It takes over, like a hunger, and nothing else matters but what you find. And even when you find it, you still start looking again the next minute, because there might be something even better waiting.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Hunting, Waiting, Might

  Tracy Chevalier (2010). “Remarkable Creatures: A Novel”, p.41, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• I try to write 1,000 words a day - about three pages. When I reach 1,000 words I feel good. Less than that: a failure. More than that: tired.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Writing, Tired, Feel Good

  "Tracy Chevalier: 'Slavery has to be raised until it's put to bed'". Interview with Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. March 16, 2013.

  6 Copy quote

• I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Children, Book, Writing

  "Tracy Chevalier: 'Slavery has to be raised until it's put to bed'". Interview with Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. March 16, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

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