Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin CH CBE FRSLwas an English poet, novelist and librarian. His first book of poetry, The North Ship, was published in 1945, followed by two novels, Jilland A Girl in Winter, and he came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddingsand High Windows. He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, articles gathered in All What Jazz: A...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 August 1922
age three should
Everyone should be forcibly transplanted to another continent from their family at the age of three.
thinking cushions subversive
I think we got much better poetry when it was all regarded as sinful or subversive, and you had to hide it under the cushion when somebody came in.
children grew hated
As a child, I thought I hated everybody, but when I grew up I realized it was just children I didn't like.
mean language ifs
A writer can have only one language, if language is going to mean anything to him.
home england excuse
Living in England has no such excuse: These are my customs and establishments....
love selfish enough
The difficult part of love Is being selfish enough....
writing thinking people
I think writing about unhappiness is probably the source of my popularity, if I have any - after all, most people are unhappy, don't you think?
writing thinking wells
I don’t think I write well—just better than anyone else,
art suicidal thinking
Seriously, I think it is a grave fault in life that so much time is wasted in social matters, because it not only takes up time when you might be doing individual private things, but it prevents you storing up the psychic energy that can then be released to create art or whatever it is. It's terrible the way we scotch silence & solitude at every turn, quite suicidal. I can't see how to avoid it, without being very rich or very unpopular, & it does worry me, for time is slipping by , and nothing is done. It isn't as if anything was gained by this social frivolity, It isn't: it's just a waste.
art lying thinking
I think that at the bottom of all art lies the impulse to preserve.
lying careers littles
How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up. It's sad, really.
thinking america west-coast
A writer once said to me, If you ever go to America, go either to the East Coast or the West Coast: The rest is a desert full of bigots. That's what I think I'd like . . . a version of pastoral.
writing novel deeper
Novels seem to me to be richer, broader, deeper, more enjoyable than poems.
writing pity good-authors
There is bad in all good authors: what a pity the converse isn't true!