Philip Larkin Quotes

“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, Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

“Dear, I can't write, it's all a fantasy: a kind of circling obsession.”
― Philip Larkin, Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

“Everyone should be forcibly transplanted to another continent from their family at the age of three.”
― Philip Larkin, Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

“There is bad in all good authors: what a pity the converse isn't true!”
― Philip Larkin, Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

“It becomes still more difficult to find
Words at once true and kind,
Or not untrue and not unkind.”
― Philip Larkin

“I think that at the bottom of all art lies the impulse to preserve.”
― Philip Larkin

“Most writers deserve the reputation posterity has bestowed upon them: You can’t for long conceal the toxic spots on your character—Philip Larkin is Exhibit A—nor can you conceal your dignity, your humanism, your regard for veracity and freedom.”
― William Giraldi

“As an adult, and as a poet of deprivation and ‘being on the edge of things’, Larkin championed public and university libraries. Though sympathetic to Toryism, he came to oppose the 1980s trends—new public management and neo-classical economics—that were antithetical to libraries. For many years, Larkin was university librarian at Hull University’s Brynmor Jones Library. When Larkin first met a new vice chancellor there, the VC asked for the library’s payroll/non-payroll breakdown. ‘Mind your own fucking business’ was the poet’s muffled reply. Larkin served on the board of the British Library, but resigned because of the early starts, and because the ‘fire-trap’ meeting room gave him claustrophobia.”
― Stuart Kells, The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders

“For many years, Larkin was university librarian at Hull University’s Brynmor Jones Library. When Larkin first met a new vice chancellor there, the VC asked for the library’s payroll/non-payroll breakdown. ‘Mind your own fucking business’ was the poet’s muffled reply.”
― Stuart Kells, The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders