Philip Larkin quotes - page 3

I think ... someone might do a little research on some of the inherent qualities of sex – its cruelty, its bullyingness, for instance. It seems to me that bending someone else to your will is the very stuff of sex, by force or neglect if you are male, by spitefulness or nagging or scenes if you are female. (Philip Larkin)
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? View quote
Philip Larkin
Death is no different whined at than withstood. View quote
Philip Larkin
Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are, to recreate the familiar, eternalizing the poet's own perception in unique and original verbal form. View quote
Philip Larkin
Life is first boredom, then fear. Whether or not we use it, it goes, And leaves what something hidden from us chose, And age, and then the only end of age. View quote
Philip Larkin
As a child, I thought I hated everybody, but when I grew up I realized it was just children I didn't like. View quote
Philip Larkin
This is the first thing I have understood: Time is the echo of an axe within a wood. View quote
Philip Larkin
I didn't choose poetry: poetry chose me. View quote
Philip Larkin
I don't think I write well - just better than anyone else. View quote
Philip Larkin
To write you must be warm, fed, loved and sober. View quote
Philip Larkin
Life is first boredom, then fear. (Philip Larkin)
The breath that sharpens life is life itself. View quote
Philip Larkin
Still, vicious or virtuous, Love suits most of us. View quote
Philip Larkin
Clearly money has something to do with life. View quote
Philip Larkin
The difficult part of love Is being selfish enough. View quote
Philip Larkin
I think ... someone might do a little research on some of the inherent qualities of sex – its cruelty, its bullyingness, for instance. It seems to me that bending someone else to your will is the very stuff of sex, by force or neglect if you are male, by spitefulness or nagging or scenes if you are female. And what's more, both sides would sooner have it that way than not at all. I wouldn't. And I suspect that means not that I can enjoy sex in my own quiet way but that I can't enjoy it at all. It's like rugby football: either you like kicking & being kicked, or your soul cringes away from the whole affair. There's no way of quietly enjoying rugby football. View quote
Philip Larkin
But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats. View quote
Philip Larkin