"The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn't. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice - by work"
About this Quote
The pivot word is “But.” Tartt shifts the conversation from identity to behavior: style is “at least partly” learnable, a phrase that preserves the aura of artistry while refusing to let writers hide behind it. The subtext is almost disciplinary. If you can’t manufacture raw narrative instinct, you can still earn a voice. “Looking and listening and reading” frames style as attention before it’s expression; you don’t discover a sentence so much as absorb a world, then translate it. It’s a quiet rebuke to the workshop fantasy that style is a set of tricks, and to the ego fantasy that it arrives fully formed.
Context matters: Tartt’s own career is defined by long gaps, obsessive revision, and a reputation for meticulous prose. She’s speaking from a position where patience is the point. Ending on “by work” is intentionally unglamorous, almost blunt to the point of irritation, which is exactly why it lands. She’s demythologizing the part of writing that actually determines who lasts: not having something to say, but building the instrument that can say it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Tartt, Donna. (2026, January 17). The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn't. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice - by work. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-storytelling-gift-is-innate-one-has-it-or-one-47982/
Chicago Style
Tartt, Donna. "The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn't. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice - by work." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-storytelling-gift-is-innate-one-has-it-or-one-47982/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn't. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice - by work." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-storytelling-gift-is-innate-one-has-it-or-one-47982/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
