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
writing thinking wells
I don’t think I write well—just better than anyone else,
writing trying poetry-is
It is fatal to decide, intellectually, what good poetry is because you are then in honour bound to try to write it, instead of the poems that only you can write.
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!
writing kind fantasy
Dear, I can't write, it's all a fantasy: a kind of circling obsession.
writing sleep organization
I can't understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: It's like going round explaining how you sleep with your wife.
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 modern-novel ends
Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end.
writing easy young
It's easy to write when you've nothing to write about (That is, when you are young)....
writing sober feds
To write you must be warm, fed, loved and sober.
writing self two
When I get sent manuscripts from aspiring poets, I do one of two things: if there is no stamped self-addressed envelope, I throw it into the bin.-If there is, I write and tell them to f**k off.
beginning classic far formula
Far too many relied on the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle, and an end
late nineteen rather sexual
Sexual intercourse beganin nineteen sixty-three(Which was rather late for me)between the end of the Chatterley banand the Beatles' first LP.
squat toad work
Why should I let the toad work / Squat on my life?