Vita Sackville-West

Excerpts from the writings of Vita Sackville-West

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

I want to be frank. I have implied, I think, that men didn’t attract me, that I didn’t think of them in what is called ‘that way’. Women did.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Mine be the secrets both of hearts and stars,
(Small, measureless hearts; great, measurable stars;)

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

The mask you wore! I dwelt only upon your insignificant vanity, and in your pride you made no defense.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Why not? You have le feu sacré. Stagnation is death, death. Burn their temples with fire, and trample their altars to dust.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

16 March 1941
Lushka mine,
Yes, of course (idiot that you are) it upsets me to see you or hear your voice. I hate you for having this effect on me.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Don't you realise the difference you are making to my life?

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Dear Mrs Woolf
We sit on the steps of the tower discussing why some women get their physical satisfaction interiorally or exteriorally, and what connection there may or may not be between the inner part of the nerve and the outer—

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Of such a tall and airy world are they,
Women and woods, with shadowed aisles profound
That none explore.
—Birches, frail whispering company, are these?
Or lovely women rooted into trees?

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Eve had never been to England, nor could he see any place in England for her. She should continue to live as she had always lived, among the vines and the magnolias

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

October rusted into gold
When you and I and love grew old.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

I was dazzled by you, I admired you, I used to watch you and think about you, in a way I almost worshipped you, I don’t mind admitting it, but that is not the same as being in love.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Well, I took Violet as far as Orpington by train, and there we found a lodging house where we could get a room. The landlady was very benevolent and I said Violet was my wife.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

‘Vagabond!’ he said. ‘Is life to be one long carnival?’
‘And one long honesty.’

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

19 December 1948
Oh my sweet: you’ll never tempt me to Paris. Cities terrify me.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Doesn't everyone like to be loved?

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

That is where sex comes in, the arch-deceiver.
Sex deludes one into the belief that one has attained real contact with another person;
And since the horrible loneliness of the soul makes one crave for some contact,
One turns gratefully to sex as a short-cut to contact.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Whatever else might be in her head, it was certain that neither love, nor romance, nor any of the emotions usually ascribed to the young, were in it. If she dreamed, it was of no young Adam.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Violet used to call me Julian. We dined together every evening in cafés and restaurants, and went to all the theatres. I shall never forget the evenings when we walked back slowly to our flat through the streets of Paris. I, personally, had never felt so free in my life.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Edith could have told them that all her life she had been trying to say what she meant, and had never yet succeeded.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

Her fluttered spirit, delicate and soft,
Bumping against the lamp of life, too hard, too glassy.

[Vita Sackville-West @VSWBot]

I’ll own you before the world—and court its disapproval.