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1 " It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory. "
― Nancy Milford , Zelda
2 " He fought for his very survival. If he fought dirty sometimes that does not diminish the fact that he refused to give up. "
3 " I am wild, if you like; but I stayed in my burrow a long, long time, - nibbling your straws and snapping at your fingers, but always just a little out of reach. Until at last I got to trust you so much that one day I ventured out for a minute, - and you threw rocks at me. And I will never come out again. "
― Nancy Milford , Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
4 " Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly; In my own way, and with my full consent. Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely Went to their deaths more proud than this one went. Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping I will confess; but that’s permitted me; Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free. If I had loved you less or played you slyly I might have held you for a summer more, But at the cost of words I value highly, And no such summer as the one before. Should I outlive this anguish—and men do— I shall have only good to say of you. "
5 " In reality, there is no materialist like the artist, asking back from life the double and the wastage and the cost on what he puts out in emotional usury. "
6 " There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice. "
7 " If I can write just one poem that will turn the minds of a few to a more decent outlook...what does it matter if I compose a bad line or lose my reputation as a craftsman?...I used to think it very important to write only good poetry. Over and over I worked it to make it as flawless as I could. What does it matter now, when men are dying for their hopes and their ideals? If I live or die as a poet it won't matter, but anyone who believes in democracy and freedom and love and culture and peace ought to be busy now. He cannot wait for the tomorrow. "
8 " I hope I'll never get ambitious enough to try anything. It's so much nicer to be damned sure I could do it better than other people - and I might not could if I tried... "
9 " The men came from every imaginable economic and social level of American life, “men who were better dressed in their uniforms than ever before in their lives,” as Zelda wrote later, “and men from Princeton and Yale who smelled of Russian Leather and seemed very used to being alive….” The larger world that Zelda dreamed of was at her doorstep and accessible. "
10 " It was not, Zelda wrote, prosperity or the softness of life, or any instability that marred the war generation; it was a great emotional disappointment resulting from the fact that life moved in poetic gestures when they were younger and had since settled back into buffoonery. "
11 " I was in love with a whirlwind and I must spin a net big enough to catch it, "
12 " Zelda was a creature who overflowed with activity, radiant with desire to take from life every chance her charm, youth, and intelligence provided so abundantly. "
13 " One of the first things Vincent explained to Norma was that there was a certain freedom of language in the Village that mustn't shock her. It wasn't vulgar. 'So we sat darning socks on Waverly Place and practiced the use of profanity as we stitched. Needle in, . Needle out, piss. Needle in, . Needle out, c. Until we were easy with the words. "
14 " It’s the first time I’ve seen early morning in a terribly long time— The sun all yellow and red, like a huge luminous peach hanging on a black shadow-tree—just visible thru the mist— "
15 " Jack Reed, whom The New York Times had labeled "the Bolshevik agitator," hesitated and then equivocated on the stand. But by then the defense of The Masses was plain: criticism of the government didn't amount to a desire to overthrow it. If all hostile opinion were suppressed, how could Americans believe they lived in a free country? Dissent was a safeguard to freedom, not an impediment. "
16 " But it was not her beauty that was arresting. It was her style, a sort of insolence toward life, her total lack of caution, her fearless and abundant pride. "
― Nancy Milford
17 " When man is no longer his own master, custodian of his own silly vanities and childish contentments he's nothing at all—being in the first place only an agent of a very experimental stage of organic free will "
18 " PARIS APRIL 1ST, 1922 A mile of clean sand. I will write my name here, and the trouble that is in my heart. I will write the date & place of my birth, What I was to be, And what I am. I will write my forty sins, my thousand follies, My four unspeakable acts.… I will write the names of the cities I have fled from, The names of the men & women I have wronged. I will write the holy name of her I serve, And how I serve her ill. And I will sit on the beach & let the tide come in. I will watch with peace the great calm tongue of the tide Licking from the sand the unclean story of my heart. … Allan "
19 " My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night;But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light! "
20 " Please don't be depressed: nothing is sad about you except your sadness... "
