This is all very nice, because the ideas that Jack and the Beat generation stood for are needed today more than ever. But I'm not so interested in nostalgia. I'm interested in the future. Lawrence Ferlinghetti More Quotes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti More Quotes From Lawrence Ferlinghetti If you're too open-minded; your brains will fall out. Lawrence Ferlinghetti sarcasticwittyfunny Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone. Lawrence Ferlinghetti graffitipoetryheart Our government is a bird with two right wings... They're devoted to the perpetuation & spread of corporate capitalism. Lawrence Ferlinghetti governmentwingstwo I am awaiting perpetually and forever a renaissance of wonder Lawrence Ferlinghetti renaissancewonderforever I was on television a couple of years ago and the reporter asked me, "How does it feel being on mainstream media? It's not often poets get on mainstream media." I said, "Well I think you're the dominant media, the dominant culture, but you're not the mainstream media. The mainstream media is still the high culture of intellectuals: writers, readers, editors, librarians, professors, artists, art critics, poets, novelists, and people who think. They are the mainstream culture, even though you may be the dominant culture." Lawrence Ferlinghetti coupleartthinking Poetry is a naked woman, a naked man, and the distance between them. Lawrence Ferlinghetti nakeddistancemen If you would be a poet, write living newspapers. Be a reporter from outer space, filing dispatches to some supreme managing editor who believes in full disclosure and has a low tolerance for bullshit. Lawrence Ferlinghetti editorswritingbelieve Make your mind learn its way around the heart. Lawrence Ferlinghetti mindheartway If you're going to be a writer you should sit down and write in the morning, and keep it up all day, every day. Charles Bukowski, no matter how drunk he got the night before or no matter how hungover he was, the next morning he was at his typewriter. Every morning. Holidays, too. He'd have a bottle of whiskey with him to wake up with, and that's what he believed. That's the way you became a writer: by writing. When you weren't writing, you weren't a writer. Lawrence Ferlinghetti holidaywritingmorning We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings. Lawrence Ferlinghetti boredomour-generationreading Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately. Lawrence Ferlinghetti fascistsfreedom-of-speechworld I am waiting for the lost music to sound again in a new rebirth of wonder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti waitingsoundwonder Poetry must be capable of answering the challenge of apocalytpic times, even if this means sounding apocaltypic. Lawrence Ferlinghetti ifschallengesmean I once started out to walk around the world but ended up in Brooklyn, that Bridge was too much for me. Lawrence Ferlinghetti brooklynbridgesworld We have to raise the consciousness; the only way poets can change the world is to raise the consciousness of the general populace. Lawrence Ferlinghetti consciousnesswayworld To say one is revolutionary is a little like saying one is a Zen Buddhist - if you say you are, you probably aren't. Lawrence Ferlinghetti buddhistrevolutionarylittles The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it. Lawrence Ferlinghetti statesworld The art has to make it on its own, without explanations, and it’s the same for poetry. If the poem or the painting has to be explained, then it’s a failure in communication. Lawrence Ferlinghetti paintingcommunicationart Beauty stands and waits Lawrence Ferlinghetti defyingwaitingbeauty Poets, come out of your closets, Open your windows, open your doors, You have been holed up too long in your closed worlds... Poetry should transport the public/to higher places/than other wheels can carry it. Lawrence Ferlinghetti doorslongworld
