Quote

One of the sadder things, I think, Is how our birthdays slowly sink: Presents and parties disappear, The cards grow fewer year by year, Till, when one reaches sixty-five, How many care we're still alive?

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
Think
Five
Aging
Sadder
Thinking
Party
Cards
Reaches
Stills
Till
Presents
Care
Disappear
Sink
Still
Grow
Sixty
Many
Grows
Parties
Years
Alive
Fewer
Things
Year
Slowly
Birthdays

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A writer once said to me, If you ever go to America, go either to the East Coast or the West Coast: The rest is a desert full of bigots. That's what I think I'd like . . . a version of pastoral.
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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.
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The breath that sharpens life is life itself.
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One of the great criticisms of poets of the past is that they said one thing and did another.
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Only one ship is seeking us, a black-Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her backA huge and birdless silence. In her wakeNo waters breed or break.
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But, o, photography! as no art is,Faithful and disappointing! That recordsDull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,And will not censor blemishes,Like washing-lines, and Hall's-Distemper boards
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Sexual intercourse began in 1963 ... / Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ and the Beatles first LP
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Most people know more as they get older: I give all that the cold shoulder.
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Joy Is for the simple or the great to feel, Neither of which we are.
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The only way to eliminate unemployment is to eliminate unemployment benefits.
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I have wished you something None of the others would.
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Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous, Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water, Is earth's most multiple, excited daughter And those she has least use for see her best, Their paths grown craven and circuitous, Their visions mountain-clear, their needs immodest.
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Any memory for the most part depending on chance.
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Things are tougher than we are, just As earth will always respond However we mess it about.
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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.
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SEX is designed for people who like overcoming obstacles.
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What are days for? Days are where we live.
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I have no enemies. But my friends don't like me.
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