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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

As I get older, I use less jewelry - necklace or earrings each morning, not both; my clothes are getting more basic - fewer colours and simpler cuts; and my make-up is stripped back to basics.

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

Normally book ideas come to me in a moment.

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

It was not a house where secrets could be kept easily.

Say something worth the words.

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.

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

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

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

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

Although I always said that I wanted to be a writer from childhood, I hadn't actually done much about it until I came to London.

We do not need such things to help us to see God, ” I countered. “We have His Word, and that isenough.

If redwoods are the backbone of California, oaks are of England.

It is not easy to let someone go, even when they have said unforgivable things to you.

What made him most attractive was that he was attracted to her. Another’s interest can be a powerful stimulant. She could feel his eyes on her as an almost physical pressure.

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 li

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.

He could not tell all of the California pines apart, the gray pine from the coulter, the bushop from the knobcone and the Monterey.