Henry Winter Quotes

“It was heart-shaking. Glorious. Torches, dizziness, singing. Wolves howling around us and a bull bellowing in the dark. The river ran white. It was like a film in fast motion, the moon waxing and waning, clouds rushing across the sky. Vines grew from the ground so fast they twined up the trees like snakes; seasons passing in the wink of an eye, entire years for all I know. . . . Mean we think of phenomenal change as being the very essence of time, when it's not at all. Time is something which defies spring and water, birth and decay, the good and the bad, indifferently. Something changeless and joyous and absolutely indestructible. Duality ceases to exist; there is no ego, no 'I,' and yet it's not at all like those horrid comparisons one sometimes hears in Eastern religions, the self being a drop of water swallowed by the ocean of the universe. It's more as if the universe expands to fill the boundaries of the self. You have no idea how pallid the workday boundaries of ordinary existence seem, after such an ecstasy.”
― Donna Tartt

“You're a Homeric scholar?' I might have said yes, but I had the feeling he'd be glad to catch me in a mistake and he would be able to do it easily. 'I like Homer' I said weakly. He regarded me chill distaste. 'I love Homer' He said.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“I looked at him. There was so much I wanted to ask him, so much I wanted to say; but somehow I knew there wasn't time and even if there was, that it was all, somehow, beside the point.
"Are you happy here?" I said at last.
He considered this for a moment. "Not particularly," he said.
"But you're not very happy where you are, either.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“I thought she was going to say, because I don't love you, which probably would have been more or less the truth, but instead, to my surprise, she said: "Because I love Henry."
"Henry's dead."
"I can't help it. I still love him."
"I loved him, too," I said.
For just a moment, I thought I felt her waver. But then she looked away.
"I know you did," she said. "But it's not enough.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“In the old days, the snow would drift up to the eaves of the roofs and people would be trapped in their houses and starve to death, they wouldn't be found until spring.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“He, in some senses, was the author of this drama and had waited in the wings a long while for this moment, where he could step onto the stage and assume the role he'd written for himself: cool but friendly; hesitant; reticent with details; bright, but not as bright as he actually was.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“There was a silence, during which I struggled for language to adequately express what I thought of this goofball advice”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“There was a silence, during which I struggled for language to adequately express what I thought of this goofball advice.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History