Vita Sackville-West

A woman writes that she has to stop and kiss the page when she reads O[rlando] – Your race I imagine. The percentage of Lesbians is rising in the States, all because of you.

Like a little warm coal in my heart burns your saying that you miss me. I miss you oh so much. How much, you’ll never believe or know. At every moment of the day. It is painful but also rather pleasant, if you know what I mean. I mean, that it is good to have so keen and persistent a feeling about somebody. It is a sign of vitality. (No pun intended.)

I suppose I can manage to exist until Monday but I’m not sure.

could devise many places

much do I like getting them, that I keep them as the last letter to open of my morning post, like a child keeps the bit of chocolate for the end –

might seem strange, at first sight, that I should have talked of you so little, having thought of you so much

I’m longing to see you. Someday I’ll write and tell you all the things you mean to me in my mind. Shall I?

one’s love for Virginia is a very different thing: a mental thing; a spiritual thing, if you like, an intellectual thing, and she inspires a feeling of tenderness, which is, I suppose, owing to her funny mixture of hardness and softness – the hardness of her mind, and her terror of going mad again. She makes me feel protective. Also she loves me, which flatters and pleases me. Also – since I have embarked on telling you about Virginia, but this is absolutely padlock privatefn18 – I am scared to death
of arousing physical feelings in her, because of the madness. I don’t know what effect it would have, you see: it is a fire with which I have no wish to play. I have too much real affection and respect for her.

It wouldn’t be safe for you, or, what matters more, the puppies.

is quite true that you have had infinitely more influence on me intellectually than anyone, and for this alone I love you […]