Lawrence Ferlinghetti
18 quotes
Biography
Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration, Ferlinghetti was best known for his second collection of poems, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), which has been translated into nine languages and sold over a million copies.
"If you're too open-minded; your brains will fall out."
"I am awaitingperpetually and forevera renaissance of wonder"
"Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone."
"Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations."
"I think if there's a great depression there might be some hope."
"Poetry is a naked woman, a naked man, and the distance between them."
"Recipe For Happiness Khaborovsk Or Anyplace'One grand boulevard with treeswith one grand cafe in sunwith strong black coffee in very small cups.One not necessarily very beautifulman or woman who loves you.One fine day."
"I feel there is an angel in me' she'd say 'whom I amconstantly shocking"
"We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings."
"Poetry is the shadow cast by our imaginations."
"I was the all-American boy, the Eagle Scout. I remember I was at my girlfriend's apartment, and there were these strange publications like The Nation and The New Republic. I started looking at them and thought, "Gee, this is weird; people saying things against America?" It was an awakening. On the East Coast, I'd never even heard of conscientious objectors."
"We have to raise the consciousness the only way poets can change the world is to raise the consciousness of the general populace."
"Constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience, the poet, like an acrobat, climbs on rhyme to a high wire of his own making."
"Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately."
"Anyone who saw Nagasaki would suddenly realize that they'd been kept in the dark by the United States government as to what atomic bombs can do."
"See it was like this when we waltz into this place.A couple of papish cats is doing an Aztec two-stepAnd I says Dad let's cutbut then this dame comes up behind me see and says you and me could really existWow I says Only the next day she has bad teeth and really hates poetry."
"Don't patronize the chain bookstores. Every time I see some author scheduled to read and sign his books at a chain bookstore, I feel like telling him he's stabbing the independent bookstores in the back."
"I didn’t know that painters and writers retired. They’re like soldiers – they just fade away."