Milford Quotes

A crossroads can be something special, a compass with arms reaching to places you might never find the way to again; places that might exist, or might have existed once, or might exist someday, depending on whether or not you decide to look for them. ~ Kate Milford

In a city, with all of its enclaves and boundaries, both real and imagined, it is impossible not to feel the presence of those who are not like you and impossible not to feel like an outsider. ~ Kate Milford

It is not merely our adversaries we must investigate ... We must always work to know ourselves better, too. ~ Kate Milford

NEW MILFORD, CONNECTICUT ~ Andrew Britton

Aboard a sailing ship sometime around the War of 1812, ~ Kate Milford

I had never understood quite so clearly the effective power of Jane Jacob's writing - no, her clear-headed observation - as I did reading "What We See". Maybe that's really the point of writing. That if you take the time to look, to really observe, then you see what is happening, and, with the clarity of that vision, you can act to save neighborhoods. ~ Nancy Milford

When I'm teaching, I tell the story of this painting for two reasons. First of all, if you want a good solid color structure, you have to have a solid development in values, dark and light. Second, if you have a good design, don't leave it if you fail to render it to its full extent the first time around. Remember it's the design that's important. Try and try till you get the thing to work. That's why The Pattern Makers is a key picture in my painting career. ~ Milford Zornes

For years, I went around the world looking and then painting, but now I have to think first and then paint. It's driven me to find the design concept first, and to rely on my memory and technical skills to supply only those details that are needed. ~ Milford Zornes

Life is impermanent and in the face of that impermanence, cavort! Look death in the eye, tell him you're as cute as a button, flash a little deviant guile his way, and tell him to go feast on somebody's else's sweet flesh. ~ Nancy Milford

Well . . . well, yes, I suppose it's very old. Perhaps someone just assumed that since it was an antique, it must be worth something. ~ Kate Milford

Any book in the world - if there was only one way to read and understand it, what would be the point of reading that book? ~ Kate Milford

The world is not simple. The world is not one place. It's the sum of an impossible number of incomprehensible things, and if you start out on any road in the world and follow it for any distance at all, sooner or later you enter into a strange country. ~ Kate Milford

But Milo had a shiny gold present to open, and presents trumped sad trees any day of the week. ~ Kate Milford

But if home suddenly becomes not like home, what then? ~ Kate Milford

Most things cost something you can give up, but they aren't worth anything – not really, not in the end. But some things . . . some have to be given free, because if you had to put a price on them, their true value would be too great for any one person to afford. ~ Kate Milford

All art is abstract, because art is an abstraction of the truth. ~ Milford Zornes

I always assume people are hiding parts of themselves from each other. People do that. ~ Kate Milford

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

She was thirteen, the daughter of a bicycle mechanic, and she couldn't ride this bicycle. It fought her; it threw her; it hated her. ~ Kate Milford

Always check for traps, left is always right unless there's a middle, always put your healer in the best armor and wear your magic rings on your toes instead of your fingers ... What else? ... Always have rope. ~ Kate Milford

The beauty of fantasy is that it allows the protagonist to pass through fear to come to know this different reality and to find a place in it. ~ Kate Milford

He fought for his very survival. If he fought dirty sometimes that does not diminish the fact that he refused to give up. ~ Nancy Milford

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. ~ Nancy Milford

The hats were nearly all as though made by somebody who had once heard about flowers but never seen one huge muffs of horror. ~ Nancy Milford

But when things were passed to you, you were supposed to pass them on to someone else eventually too. ~ Kate Milford

Cities have the capability to at any moment shift out of the familiar, even if you've lived in one all your life. ~ Kate Milford

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. ~ Nancy Milford

This house had survived for many, many years. It had copper pipes that reached down into the earth like roots, its woodwork had taught its stonework how to breathe in exchange for lessons in strength, and the ironwork that chased the eaves and climbed the walls and curled along the windows danced in the sunset. ~ Kate Milford

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

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. ~ Nancy Milford

You have to look at a thing long enough for it to really show itself to you ... ~ Kate Milford

Plus, the thing about attics and basements was, everything in there had once been a treasure to someone. Otherwise there'd have been no reason to keep it. ~ Kate Milford

Everybody feels better when there's cake ~ Kate Milford