“Originality is being different from oneself, not others.”
― Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
― Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
“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: Letters to Monica
― Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
“So many things I had thought forgotten
Return to my mind with stranger pain:
Like letters that arrive addressed to someone
Who left the house so many years ago.
from “Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?,”
― Collected Poems
Return to my mind with stranger pain:
Like letters that arrive addressed to someone
Who left the house so many years ago.
from “Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?,”
― Collected Poems
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
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.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.”
― High Windows
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
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.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.”
― High Windows
Hiren’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Hiren’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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