Best 36 quotes of Tracy Chevalier on MyQuotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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'.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Because thee remains there, it is easier for me to go, for thee can be the shore I look back on, the star that remains fixed." from "The Last Runaway

But John Chapman told us he didnt eat meat cause he couldnt stand for somethin livin to be killed jest to keep him alive.

Everything engravers do gets printed opposite. The engraver has to be able to see it both ways.

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

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.” [Woman's Day magazine, March 12, 2002]

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.

It turned out plant collecting was a solitary occupation. In the past Robert had enjoyed being alone, or so he thought. Actually he had rarely been alone for long: working in hotels, in stables, on ranches and farms, and as a miner, he had always been around others. Now, out in the woods or up in the hills or out on the flat central plain, he could go for days without speaking to anyone. His throat seemed to close up and he had to keep clearing it, singing songs aloud or reciting the Latin names of plants, just to check that he still had a voice. 'Araucaria imbricata. Sequoia sempervirens. Pinus lambertiana. Abies magnifica'. He was surprised at how much he missed people..

of all the cities he had been to—Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake City—San Francisco was by far the worst.

She reminded him of September blackberries, which looked ripe but could just as easily be sour as sweet when you ate them.

Though grafted at the same time, they had grown up to be different sizes; it always surprised James that the trees could turn out as varied as his children.

Warp threads are thicker than the weft, and made of a coarser wool as well. I think of them as like wives. Their work is not obvious - all you can see are the ridges they make under the colorful weft threads. But if they weren't there, there would be no tapestry. Georges would unravel without me.

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

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.