Philip Larkin Quotes

Quotes about:

• I have no enemies. But my friends don't like me.

  Philip Larkin

  Enemy, Don't Like Me, Like Me

  Philip Larkin (1989). “Philip Larkin: the man and his work”, Univ of Iowa Pr

  65 Copy quote

• Poetry should begin with emotion in the poet, and end with the same emotion in the reader. The poem is simply the instrument of transferance.

  Philip Larkin

  Poetry, Emotion, Ends

  BBC Third Programme, April 13, 1956.

  19 Copy quote

• How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up. It's sad, really.

  Philip Larkin

  Lying, Careers, Littles

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica”, Faber & Faber

  50 Copy quote

• I feel the only thing you can do about life is to preserve it, by art if you're an artist, by children if you're not.

  Philip Larkin

  Art, Children, Life Is

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica”, Faber & Faber

  38 Copy quote

• I'm terrified of the thought of time passing (or whatever is meant by that phrase) whether I 'do' anything or not. In a way I may believe, deep down, that doing nothing acts as a brake on 'time's - it doesn't of course. It merely adds the torment of having done nothing, when the time comes when it really doesn't matter if you've done anything or not.

  Philip Larkin

  Believe, Add, Phrases

  33 Copy quote

• What will survive of us is love.

  Philip Larkin

  Romantic, Death, Inspirational Love

  "An Arundel Tomb" l. 42 (1964)

  35 Copy quote

• As a child, I thought I hated everybody, but when I grew up I realized it was just children I didn't like.

  Philip Larkin

  Children, Grew, Hated

  36 Copy quote

• Novels are about other people and poems are about yourself.

  Philip Larkin

  People, Poetry, About Yourself

  "Required Writing". Book by Philip Larkin, 1983.

  9 Copy quote

• I have a sense of melancholy isolation, life rapidly vanishing, all the usual things. It's very strange how often strong feelings don't seem to carry any message of action

  Philip Larkin

  Strong, Feelings, Usual

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica”, p.339, Faber & Faber

  41 Copy quote

• Sexual intercourse began in 1963 ... / Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ and the Beatles first LP

  Philip Larkin

  Firsts, Bans, Ends

  "Annus Mirabilis" l. 1 (1974)

  35 Copy quote

• Selflessness is like waiting in a hospital
  In a badly-fitting suit on a cold wet morning.
  Selfishness is like listening to good jazz
  With drinks for further orders and a huge fire.

  Philip Larkin

  Love, Morning, Fire

  21 Copy quote

• Depression hangs over me as if I were Iceland.

  Philip Larkin

  Iceland, Hang Over, Ifs

  16 Copy quote

• Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself.

  Philip Larkin

  Kids, Men, Hands

  High Windows (1974) "This Be The Verse"

  23 Copy quote

• A good poem about failure is a success.

  Philip Larkin

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982”, p.68, Faber & Faber

  20 Copy quote

• Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end.

  Philip Larkin

  Writing, Modern Novel, Ends

  'New Fiction' no. 15, January 1978 (the 'classic formula' for a novel)

  14 Copy quote

• If you tell a novelist, 'Life's not like that', he has to do something about it. The poet simply replies, 'No, but I am.'

  Philip Larkin

  Novelists, Poet, Ifs

  13 Copy quote

• He married a woman to stop her getting away Now she's there all day.

  Philip Larkin

  Marriage, Married, Get Away

  Philip Larkin (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.83, Faber & Faber

  16 Copy quote

• You can look out of your life like a train & see what you're heading for, but you can't stop the train.

  Philip Larkin

  Looks, Headings, Train

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica”, Faber & Faber

  1 Copy quote

• I don't think I write well - just better than anyone else.

  Philip Larkin

  Writing, Thinking, Wells

  18 Copy quote

• Death: the anaesthetic from which none come round.

  Philip Larkin

  Death, Rounds

  Philip Larkin (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.171, Faber & Faber

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

  Philip Larkin

  Writing, Self, Two

  20 Copy quote

• 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.

  Philip Larkin

  Writing, Sleep, Organization

  "Philip Larkin's Everyday Poetry" by Henry Allen, www.washingtonpost.com. June 3, 1989.

  10 Copy quote

• I didn't choose poetry: poetry chose me.

  Philip Larkin

  Philip Larkin, Brian Dyson (1989). “The Modern Academic Library: Essays in Memory of Philip Larkin”, Library Assn Pub Limited

  6 Copy quote

• So many things I had thought forgotten Return to my mind with stranger pain: Like letters that arrive addressed to someone Who left the house so many years ago.

  Philip Larkin

  Pain, Years, House

  Philip Larkin, “Why DID I Dream Of You Last Night?”

  19 Copy quote

• Novels seem to me to be richer, broader, deeper, more enjoyable than poems.

  Philip Larkin

  Writing, Novel, Deeper

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982”, p.57, Faber & Faber

  5 Copy quote

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