Tracy Chevalier quotes

Tracy Chevalier is a British-American novelist, widely known for her historical fiction. Her most famous work, "Girl with a Pearl Earring," was adapted into a successful film. She explores art, history, and women’s stories through vivid and evocative narratives. Here are 23 of her 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

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

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

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.

Tracy Chevalier

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

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

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

Tracy Chevalier

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

Tracy Chevalier

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

Tracy Chevalier

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

Tracy Chevalier

Say something worth the words.

Tracy Chevalier

I live with them for a long time in my head. When I first start writing about a character, I don't know them that well. It's through the process of writing of putting them in scenes, and contemplating them-when I've spent more time with them-that they take on more flesh. When I start writing, I have a lot of characters that I'm not sure what their place in the novel will be...And some characters recede as I put more flesh on them. I think I don't really need them; they're not giving me anything. Or they're there for a particular effect, and that's it.

Tracy Chevalier

Usually, I take great pleasure in finding a notebook that's going to match the subject matter. And this time, for some reason, I was in a hurry. I hadn't found the right one, I had started my research, and I couldn't wait for the perfect notebook. So, I just grabbed one that I had. It's the first time though, and it felt a little sad.

Tracy Chevalier

I have huge respect for short stories-I just find them much harder to get right than a novel. A novel is a lot baggier and it gives you more leeway to go on for too long or to make mistakes. Whereas in a short story, every sentence, every word, matters-and that's very hard. I think it's easier to write too much than it is to write exactly the right thing.

Tracy Chevalier

Dialogue is always tricky. Authenticity is almost impossible, and you always end up sounding too olde worlde. What I do is to strip the words back, so I get the dialogue to sound timeless...

Tracy Chevalier

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

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

Tracy Chevalier

As a reader, I happen to like turning pages and wanting to know what happens next.

Tracy Chevalier

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.

Tracy Chevalier

There are times when I'm hoping the reader will feel slightly sympathetic. She's in a marriage she should never have made and she's kind of stuck in this swamp. And she is, yes, self-centered and a terrible mother; but she also is misunderstood, I think, at times, and frustrated...

Tracy Chevalier