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The breath that sharpens life is life itself.
Philip Larkin
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Philip Larkin
Age: 63 †
Born: 1922
Born: August 9
Died: 1985
Died: December 2
Critic
Journalist
Librarian
Music Critic
Music Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Coventry
England
UK
Philip Arthur Larkin
Sharpens
Breath
Breaths
Life
More quotes by Philip Larkin
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.
Philip Larkin
I think that at the bottom of all art lies the impulse to preserve.
Philip Larkin
Here no elsewhere underwrites my existence.
Philip Larkin
I don't think I write well - just better than anyone else.
Philip Larkin
The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said.
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.
Philip Larkin
I never think of poetry or the poetry scene, only separate poems written by individuals.
Philip Larkin
Still, vicious or virtuous, Love suits most of us.
Philip Larkin
I think a young poet, or an old poet, for that matter, should try to produce something that pleases himself personally, not only when he's written it but a couple of weeks later. Then he should see if it pleases anyone else, by sending it to the kind of magazine he likes reading.
Philip Larkin
Here silence stands Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken, Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken, Luminously-peopled air ascends And past the poppies bluish neutral distance Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence: Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.
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.
Philip Larkin
Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, / Shaped to the comfort of the last to go / As if to win them back
Philip Larkin
Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs: Despite the artful tensions of the calendar, The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites, The costly aversion of the eyes from death- Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs.
Philip Larkin
There is bad in all good authors: what a pity the converse isn't true!
Philip Larkin
The only way to eliminate unemployment is to eliminate unemployment benefits.
Philip Larkin
... everyone young going down the long slide To happiness, endlessly.
Philip Larkin
We should be careful / Of each other, we should be kind / While there is still time.
Philip Larkin
Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life? Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork And drive the brute off? Six days of the week it soils With its sickening poison-- Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion.
Philip Larkin
I have no enemies. But my friends don't like me.
Philip Larkin
Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it.
Philip Larkin
