Home / Quotes / Quote by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Quote by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“Poetry must be capable of answering the challenge of apocalytpic times, even if this means sounding apocaltypic.”

Author

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, born on March 24, 1919, is a renowned American poet whose works are known for their unique style and profound insights into social issues. more

“I arrived in San Francisco in January 1951. After the Second World War, the population was so uprooted. Soldiers came back home for brief periods and took off again. So the population was very fluid, and suddenly it was as if the continent tilted west. The whole population slid west. It took 10 years for America to coalesce into a new culture. And the new culture happened in San Francisco, not New York.”

“T.S. Eliot's influence was enormous on my generation. Much more than Ezra Pound. I actually had to put T.S. Eliot books out of the house because my poetry was so influenced. Everything I wrote sounded like Eliot.”

Book House Generations Influence Enormous Pounds My Generation Eliot

Author:Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“You can publish a poem you think is a very important poem, and you don't hear a word from anyone. [...] You can publish a book of poetry by dropping it off a cliff and waiting to hear an echo. Quite often, you'll never hear a thing. So doing that, using older work, puts it in a context, and that sort of forces the reader to realize what its importance is-if it has any. Everything needs a context. You're not going to recognize a poet unless you have a context.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Important Book Force Waiting Realizing Poet Reader Importance Echoes Publish Cliffs Dropping

Author:Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“We'd like to just write nothing but lyric poetry. The trouble is, the individual is going along intent on his own personal gratifications and love affairs and financial affairs and everything else. But loping alongside him is this fascist lout who keeps trying to take over. And if you keep ignoring him, he gets bigger and bigger, so every once in a while the free individual has to turn away from his private pursuits and give this fascist lout a few clouts, and beat him down to size.”

Ifs Giving Writing Trying Turns Individual Trouble Beats And Love Bigger Affair Financial Size Pursuit Gratification Keep Trying Love Affair Fascists Clout Lyric Poetry

Author:Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“Communism wasn't a word that I thought of when I went to Cuba. The original Fidelistas were not Communists. They were graduate students at the university and law students. After the Fidelistas took over, they went to Washington and tried to get support from the U.S. government, which turned them down. They were in a desperate political and economic situation, so they took the offer from the Soviet Union. Communism was a matter of necessity.”

“I am not a follower of Moscow, but its victim.”

Victim Followers Moscow

Author:Fidel Castro

“Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50? Generally, people seem to get more conservative as they age, but in my case, I seem to have gotten more radical.”

People Seems Age Cases Poet Conservative Radical

Author:Fidel Castro

“I don't care about truth; I care about art and style and writing and occupying the wall. For me, my writing style is very linked to the fact that it is a work of art on the wall. I had to find a way to write in concise, effective phrases that people standing or walking into a room could read.”

People Way Writing Art Facts Care Rooms Style Wall Walking Standing Don't Care I Don't Care Phrases Works Of Art I Care Linked Concise Writing Style

Author:Sophie Calle

“Art is a way of taking distance. The pathological or therapeutic aspects exist, but just as catalysts.”

Way Art Art Is Aspect Distance Catalyst Therapeutic

Author:Sophie Calle

“I don't do flash fiction.”

Fiction Flash

Author:Charles Stross

Quote by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Author

You May Also Like