Philip Larkin People Quotations

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?

I'd like to think...that people in pubs would talk about my poems

I am always trying to 'preserve' things by getting other people to read what I have written, and feel what I felt.

As a guiding principle I believe that every poem must be its own sole freshly created universe, and therefore have no belief n 'tradition' or a common myth-kitty or casual allusions in poems to other poems or poets, which last I find unpleasantly like the talk of literary understrappers letting you see they know the right people.

Novels are about other people and poems are about yourself

Most people know more as they get older: I give all that the cold shoulder.

SEX is designed for people who like overcoming obstacles.