Home / Authors / Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg Quotes

Poet

Allen Ginsberg, born on June 3, 1926, was an influential American poet. Known for his free-form poetry and profound political and social commentary, he was one of the key figures of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg's landmark poem 'Howl' was first published in 1956, becoming a milestone in American literary history.

Filter quotes by topic

All World America Howl Want People Poetry Writing Ifs Knows Literature Thinking Mind Naked Soul Art Consciousness Self Spirit Angel Dream

Famous Allen Ginsberg Quotes

“I'm with you in Rockland in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey on the highway across America in tears to the door of my cottage in the Western night.”

America Friendship Journey Tears Travel California Love Poem Reunion Howl

Book:Howl and Other Poems

Source: Howl and Other Poems

“America, I've given you all and now I'm nothing.”

America Literature Given Wonder Years

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“The real America that Whitman proclaimed and Thoreau decoded.”

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“Because systems of mass communication can communicate only officially acceptable levels of reality, no one can know the extent of the secret unconscious life. No one in America can know what will happen. No one is in real control.”

Knows Life Real Wisdom Reality Happens America Ability Levels Secret Knowledge Power Acceptance Communication Mass Communicate Unconscious Acceptable Mass Communication

Book:The Essential Ginsberg

Source: The Essential Ginsberg

“I'm an old man now, and a lonesome man in Kansas / but not afraid / to speak my lonesomeness in a car, / because not only my lonesomeness / it's Ours, all over America, / O tender fellows --/ & spoken lonesomeness is Prophecy / in the moon 100 years ago or in / the middle of Kansas now.”

Men Years America Speak Middle Car Moon Years Ago Fellows Old Man Not Afraid Prophecy Kansas Lonesome Lonesomeness

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea journey on the highway across America in tears to the door of my cottage in the Western night”

Dream America Night Walks Doors Journey Sea Tears Western Highways Howl Cottages Dripping

Book:Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4

Source: Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4

“America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.”

Kids America Used Sorry Used To Be Communist Not Sorry

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“America, why are your libraries full of tears?”

America Tears Library

Book:Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4

Source: Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4

“Nobody saves America by sniffing cocaine. Jiggling your knees blankeyed in the rain, when it snows in your nose you catch cold in your brain.”

America Brain Cold Rain Snow Noses Knees Cocaine Sniffing Sniffing Glue

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“I am neither romantic nor a visionary, and that is my weakness and perhaps my power; at any rate it is one difference. In less romantic and visionary terms, I am a Jew, (with powers of introspection and eclecticism attendant, perhaps.) But I am alien to your natural grace, to the spirit which you would know as a participator in America.”

Knows America Spirit Term Natural Differences Grace Weakness Rate Jew Aliens Introspection Visionaries

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“America, how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?”

Writing America Literature Stupid Holy Mood Silly

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“Every American wants MORE & MORE of the world and why not, you only live once. But the mistake made in America is persons accumulate more & more dead matter, machinery, possessions & rugs & fact information at the expense of what really counts as more: feeling, good feeling, sex feeling, tenderness feeling, mutual feeling. You own twice as much rug if you're twice as aware of the rug.”

“Last Exit to Brooklyn should explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years.”

Should Years Stills Lasts America Hundred Brooklyn Exit Bombshells

Author:Allen Ginsberg

About the Author

Born: June 3, 1926
Died: April 5, 1997
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 193

Related Topics

World America Howl Want People Poetry Writing Ifs Knows Literature Thinking Mind Naked Soul Art Consciousness Self Spirit Angel Dream

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4Related source material

Collected Poems 1947-1997Related source material

On the Poetry of Allen GinsbergRelated source material

The Essential GinsbergRelated source material

Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The LettersRelated source material

Journals: Early Fifties, Early SixtiesRelated source material

The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971: Pocket Poets Number 30Related source material

The Human Street: PhotographsRelated source material

Wait Till I'm Dead: Uncollected PoemsRelated source material

Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and SonRelated source material

Similar Authors

D. H. LawrenceBrowse related quotes
Don DeLilloBrowse related quotes
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelBrowse related quotes
Gertrude SteinBrowse related quotes
Guillermo Cabrera InfanteBrowse related quotes
Irwin ShawBrowse related quotes
Jeanette WintersonBrowse related quotes
Alice WalkerBrowse related quotes
Virginia WoolfBrowse related quotes
Jack KerouacBrowse related quotes