Philip Larkin Quotes about Writing

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Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end.

Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end.

Philip Larkin

Writing, Modern Novel, Ends

'New Fiction' no. 15, January 1978 (the 'classic formula' for a novel)

When I get sent manuscripts from aspiring poets, I do one of two things: if there is no stamped self-addressed envelope, I throw it into the bin.-If there is, I write and tell them to f**k off.

Philip Larkin

Writing, Self, Two

I can't understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: It's like going round explaining how you sleep with your wife.

Philip Larkin

Writing, Sleep, Organization

"Philip Larkin's Everyday Poetry" by Henry Allen, www.washingtonpost.com. June 3, 1989.

I don't think I write well - just better than anyone else.

Philip Larkin

Writing, Thinking, Wells

It is fatal to decide, intellectually, what good poetry is because you are then in honour bound to try to write it, instead of the poems that only you can write.

Philip Larkin

Writing, Trying, Good Poetry

Philip Larkin (2012). “Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982”, p.72, Faber & Faber