Novels seem to me to be richer, broader, deeper, more enjoyable than poems. — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
I think we got much better poetry when it was all regarded as sinful or subversive, and you had to hide it… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Poetry is nobody’s business except the poet’s, and everybody else can fuck off.” — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Sexual intercourse began in nineteen sixty-three (Which was rather late for me) between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles'… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
One of the great criticisms of poets of the past is that they said one thing and did another. — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
If you tell a novelist, 'Life's not like that', he has to do something about it. The poet simply replies, 'No, but… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
I never think of poetry or the poetry scene, only separate poems written by individuals. — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Since the majority of me Rejects the majority of you, Debating ends forthwith, and we Divide.” — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
Poetry should begin with emotion in the poet, and end with the same emotion in the reader. The poem is simply the… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are, to recreate the familiar, eternalizing the poet's own perception in… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
It is fatal to decide, intellectually, what good poetry is because you are then in honour bound to try to write it,… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
When I get sent manuscripts from aspiring poets, I do one of two things: if there is no stamped self-addressed envelope, I… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Morning, noon & bloody night, Seven sodding days a week, I slave at filthy WORK, that might Be done by any book-drunk… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“So many things I had thought forgotten Return to my mind with stranger pain: Like letters that arrive addressed to someone Who… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
I think a young poet, or an old poet, for that matter, should try to produce something that pleases himself personally, not… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows Nothing,… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
I can't understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: It's like going round explaining how you… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Loneliness clarifies. Here silence stands Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken, Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken, Luminously-peopled air ascends; And past… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
I am not sure, once a poet has found out what has been written already, and how it was written - once,… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
As a guiding principle I believe that every poem must be its own sole freshly created universe, and therefore have no belief… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Empty-page staring again tonight. It's maddening. I suppose people who don't write (like the Connollies) imagine anything that can be though can… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“How hard it is, to be forced to the conclusion that people should be, nine tenths of the time, left alone! -… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Birthdays are a time when one stock takes, which means, I suppose, a good spineless mope: I scan my horizon and can… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“What do they think has happened, the old fools, To make them like this ? Do they somehow suppose It's more grown-up… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Always too eager for the future, we Pick up bad habits of expectancy. Something is always approaching; every day Till then we… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“When I throw back my head and howl People (women mostly) say But you've always done what you want, You always get… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Often one spends weeks trying to write a poem out of the conscious mind that never comes to anything - these are… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“Time has transfigured them into Untruth. The stone fidelity They hardly meant has come to be Their final blazon, and to prove… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
The poetic impulse is distinct from ideas about things or feelings about things, though it may use these. It's more like a… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
Only one ship is seeking us, a black-Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her backA huge and birdless silence. In her wakeNo waters breed or break. — Philip Larkin Copy Share
And immediately Rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows Nothing,… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
“Once I am sure there's nothing going on I step inside, letting the door thud shut. Another church: matting, seats, and stone, And little… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
Life is first boredom, then fear. Whether or not we use it, it goes, And leaves what something hidden from us chose, age, and… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
“It never worked for me. Something to do with violence A long way back, and wrong rewards, And arrogant eternity.” — Philip Larkin Copy Share
Seriously, I think it is a grave fault in life that so much time is wasted in social matters, because it not only takes… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
So many things I had thought forgotten Return to my mind with stranger pain: Like letters that arrive addressed to someone Who left the… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
“One of the quainter quirks of life is that we shall never know who dies on the same day as we do ourselves.” — Philip Larkin Copy Share
“I sit in my room like Miss Havisham, about whom I have been reading this week. Better the Dickens you know than the Dickens… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
“When I throw back my head and howl People (women mostly) say But you've always done what you want, You always get your way… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
I think a young poet, or an old poet, for that matter, should try to produce something that pleases himself personally, not only when… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
“Side by side, their faces blurred, The earl and countess lie in stone, Their proper habits vaguely shown As jointed armour, stiffened pleat, And… — Philip Larkin Copy Share
