I never wanted to live an unembellished life, and I have never done it.... Living under such a compulsion has been like painting pictures of life, and I don’t take kindly to suggestions that I might have been less egotistically employed had I become a trained nurse.
ATTRIBUTION:
Margaret Anderson (1886–1973), U.S. editor and memoirist. The Strange Necessity, part 1 (1969).
A devotee, editor, publisher, and promoter of the arts—especially the avant- garde—Anderson often survived on very little income and never held a “regular” job. She was beautiful, stylish, and flamboyant. Openly lesbian, she lived at various times in Chicago, New York, and Paris, becoming familiar with the visual and literary artists of each locale.
