“I never had such a lovely time in my life, and Philip's absolutely perfect.” An early rapture that did not survive the first marriage · Letter to her mother, written on her honeymoon in New York Happiness Marriage Youth
“Of pure Pennsylvania stock.” She corrected the New Jersey birthplace with family loyalty to Pennsylvania lineage · Spoken protest, as often reported America Family Identity
“A deliberate art, perhaps, but as such it is a discipline and a struggle not to be too impetuously scorned.” She answers the modernist sneer at rhyme and measure by calling craft a hard practice · Essay on her choice of traditional forms, Collected Prose Craft Discipline Form
“To avoid the bitterness of being understood — and to avoid the bitterness of understanding; sometimes it is that.” A cool admission that concealment can protect both speaker and listener · Essay, Symbols in Literature, Collected Prose Privacy Secrecy Understanding
“If you call a spade a diamond some people will think you are frivolous and affected, but other people will understand how much blacker things may be said about spades by the simple trick of pretending that they are diamonds.” She treats symbol and artifice as a way to speak more darkly, not less honestly · Essay, Symbols in Literature, Collected Prose Language Symbolism Truth
“I think the juvenilia superior to the rest.” A late, unexpected defence of the unsigned 1912 booklet she had once wanted forgotten · Letter to Louis Untermeyer, years after Incidental Numbers Judgement Poetry Youth
“I am very well and happy — each time, as for instance yesterday, that I see the turmoil and soot of London, I rejoice to be living in the country. I am a perfect fool for love of it.” Written months before her death, after she had settled to work in the English countryside · Letter from Henley-on-Thames, 25 September 1928, quoted by William Rose Benét Happiness Home Nature
“As to the decoration, the setting of words transparent or opaque in a pattern upon our jewelled bindings, I am by no means ready to discard it.” A refusal to give up patterned language when modern taste called it mere polish · Essay, Jewelled Bindings, The New Republic, 5 December 1923 Beauty Tradition Words
“I think rather that we have found a manner which very justly encloses our matter, a letter which very nicely defines our spirit.” Form, for her, is not ornament pasted on but the exact shape of the thought · Essay, Jewelled Bindings, The New Republic, 5 December 1923 Form Poetry Style
“And I believe we are good workmen, dextrous and clean in our handling of gold and silver and precious — or even semi-precious — stones.” She defends formal lyric craft as goldsmith's work rather than raw confession · Essay, Jewelled Bindings, The New Republic, 5 December 1923 Art Craft Poetry
“I say it is meringue, but you will see it is really meringue flavoured with strychnine rather than vanilla bean.” She warned that a pretty surface in her prose hid a deliberate sting · Letter to a friend, on her fiction Fiction Satire Style
“I cannot help making fables and bitter fairy tales out of life.” A compact account of how she turned private scandal and feeling into artifice · Personal remark, as commonly cited Life Storytelling Writing
“It was Horace who made a poet and scholar of me.” She credited Horace Wylie with the reading and discipline that formed her craft · Recalled remark, about six years after leaving Washington Influence Learning Poets
“Don't let this kill you. I have run away.” The brief note left when she fled her first marriage for Horace Wylie · Letter to her mother, December 1910 Family Freedom Rebellion
“I have never published anything—never tried to, until the last few weeks.” She kept Incidental Numbers a secret when first approaching Poetry magazine · Letter to Harriet Monroe, 1919 Beginnings Secrecy Writing
“Yes, it would be a pity that a first-rate poet should be turned into a second-rate poet by marrying a third-rate poet.” A dry verdict on her match with William Rose Benét, delivered with what Wilson called her harsh laugh · Conversation, reported by Edmund Wilson Marriage Poets Wit
“I don't think I am a falcon. I think I am a life with a broken wing. I know it. But read that poem—Let no charitable hope. Now you know, red lizard.” She answers a lover's flattering comparison by pointing him to her own unsparing self-portrait · Letter to William Rose Benét Identity Poetry Self Knowledge
