Sublime

We see a future of satisfaction in a present of deprivation.

Look, if you can manage to live comfortably off your inspiration forever, that’s fantastic. That’s everyone’s dream, right? But don’t let that dream turn into a nightmare. Financial demands can put so much pressure on the delicacies and vagaries of inspiration. You must be smart about providing for yourself. To claim that you are too creative to th

He was swearing at her and at himself. She looked him in the face, intent on discovering some tiny trace of grace, some snatch of goodness . . .

Qu’est-ce que je fais ici ? Pourquoi je perds mon temps comme ça ? Les filles et Naples m’ont dévorée vive. Je ne travaille pas, je n’écris pas, j’ai perdu toute discipline !

Millay chose to light her candle at both ends, and lived an incandescent life. When her candle ran out, she died sick, addicted, and much too young. But each day of her life she could decide, “Am I going to be brilliant today?”

What was real, in the end, was the loss of the house, which had become the geographical location for things that had gone absent and which represented, I supposed, the hope that they might one day return.

She remembered the dead ember hidden in the pocket of Martin’s greatcoat. Embers carried for protection. Where had it come from? From what hearth, what fire?