Allen Ginsberg Quotes

Allen Ginsberg was a remarkable guy. He was himself. He was an original.

— Nat Hentoff

My style of performance poetry came from the beatniks, Allen Ginsberg.

— Patti Smith

Allen Ginsberg is a tremendous warrior as time goes by. He's a warrior first and a poet second.

— Ken Kesey

I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.

— Ai Weiwei

I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who's like a child.

— Ai Weiwei

I never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.

— Ai Weiwei

Bob Dylan is out of the mentorship of Allen Ginsberg.

— Peter Fonda

[Allen] Ginsberg totally helped that out. He was the best sales person. He was the most pop. They are still shocking and…

— Yony Leyser

I'm doing research for a large comic book on the Beat Generation guys - Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and those guys

— Harvey Pekar

What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to…

— Rita Dove

Writing and rewriting are the same thing to me. I don't believe what Allen Ginsberg said that "first thought, then - "…

— Lynne Tillman

I still had to correct Allen Ginsberg at times when he called women girls. I'd say. Allen please, it's not politically correct.

— Anne Waldman

Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake, and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world…

— David Amram

“Ed Friedman: [talking about Patti Smith] One time she told me, "Allen Ginsberg thought I was a cute boy and he tried…

— Gillian McCain Legs McNeil

Look at Allen Ginsberg. In poems like 'Kaddish' and 'Howl,' you can hear a cantor between the lines. It's fully alive, and…

— Derek Walcott

Regarding R. H. Blyth: Blyth's four volume Haiku became especially popular at this time [1950's] because his translations were based on the…

— Reginald Horace Blyth

When [Allen] Ginsberg and I founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics - that was 1974 - we referred to it…

— Anne Waldman

“Her shoes were so pink that if she stepped in bubblegum, nobody would be able to see. And my shoes were so…

— Jarod Kintz

I'm not just influenced by the '60s - it's who I am. I grew up with Allen Ginsberg and Che Guevara. I…

— Thom Mayne

“Leo a Casavella, que es mi contemporáneo. Leo a Grace Morales, que es mi contemporáneo. Leo Allen Ginsberg, que es mi contemporáneo.…

— Javier Pérez Andújar

Allen Ginsberg once said, Follow your inner moonlight; dont hide the madness. In other words, in this crazy world thats trying to…

— Melchor Lim

My father shared the ethos of many of the beat writers and was a friend of Allen Ginsberg. Probably for 25 years…

— Anne Waldman

When Allen Ginsberg was still alive, he was was an artist, but he was very local. He was just another wing-nut in…

— Eric Drooker

“Allen Ginsberg asked me to sign his book. I must've stood there for five minutes drawing a complete blank. Hi Allen, from…

— Eileen Myles

“This is just shit. It's happening. No blame. Happening and on the rise it would appear. What can we do to delay…

— Ken Kesey

I prefer formal techniques, and use sonnets and rhyme, any manner of scheme to give a shape and order-of feeling as well…

— J. D. McClatchy

We had collaborated with Allen Ginsberg on one of his last projects just before he died in the spring of '97, a…

— Eric Drooker

I never did know exactly what was meant by the term "The Beats," but let's say that the original meeting, association, comradeship…

— Gary Snyder

[Polythene Pam] was me, remembering a little event with a woman in Jersey, and a man who was England's answer to Allen…

— John Lennon

“The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder…

— Jack Kerouac

“A reflection on Robert Lowell Robert Lowell knew I was not one of his devotees. I attended his famous “office hours” salon…

— Robert Pinsky

My last bedside conversation in the hospital just a few weeks before Allen Ginsberg died was 'please take care of so and…

— Anne Waldman

I have lots of things that aren't so old that I value, such as a copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," which he…

— Stephen Greenblatt

I saw [Allen Ginsberg] more as an old man who liked poetry and who had a lot of physical and emotional problems.…

— Ai Weiwei

I've listened to and know Allen Ginsberg music and met him a couple of times, but I don't have any strong statements…

— William S. Burroughs

I absorbed the vinyl of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Jack Elliott, to Michael McClure and then into the Beat poets, Allen Ginsberg.…

— Donovan

“Between the whiskers scraggling down his neck and the now-crooked glasses, he could have been the Black Allen Ginsberg.”

— Garth Risk Hallberg

If I had a soul I sold it for pretty words If I had a body I used it up spurting my…

— Allen Ginsberg

“Allen Ginsberg startled the audience at OutWrite, the gay literary conference, when he confessed he didn’t worry about AIDS since his sex…

— Christopher Bram

I used to think of that line in Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl', about the 'sad cup of coffee'.. ..I have had cold coffee…

— Robert Rauschenberg