Quick quotation question.

[randomness]

On August 5, 2010, Christopher Hitchens was interviewed by Anderson Cooper*. In that interview, he says of his drinking and smoking, "I rather enjoyed the feeling of burning the candle at both ends...[A]nd it gave a lovely light.”

I've seen his use of this particular phrase quoted by many in their obituaries. In very, very few places--five found by Google, just now--is the phrase attributed to Edna St. Vincent Millay.

"My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light."
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, "A Few Figs from Thistles"

It's a perfect quote for the situation, and I'm sure Hitchens knew who he was quoting.

Is this such a commonly known quote that everyone knows where it came from? Or has the "candle burning at both ends/giving a lovely light" simply become a common saying that everyone knows, so attribution is unnecessary? Or is it just that my Google-fu is awful?

(I'm a terrible judge of how common it is because my first serious girlfriend wrote her thesis on the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay.)

*First half of quote at 0:45, second half at 2:20. Transcript at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1112/16/acd.01.html. Non-embeddable video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeiS7hYbb8c

Comments

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

I had no familiarity with the "it gives a lovely light" component of this before this post. I certainly didn't know that it was from ESVM, but I also wouldn't have put it in "common saying that everyone knows."

(Personally, I'd put Hitchens use in the routine plagiarism of everyday life. :) )

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd put Hitchens use in the routine plagiarism of everyday life. :)

My guess is he knew quite well who he was quoting and was at turns amused that people assumed it was his and dismayed that no one else picked up where it was actually from.