Quotes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“I have a feeling Im falling on rare occasions but most of the time I have my feet on the ground I cant help it if the ground itself is falling.”

“Southern California, where the American Dream came too true”

“The world is a beautiful place to be born into - if you dont mind some people dying all the time - or maybe only starving - some of the time which isnt half so bad - if it isnt you”

“I am waiting for them to prove that God is really American”

“... there is an ecstatic mechanism in birds that makes them fly upwards in spite of worms.”

“I greet you at the beginning of a great career,”

“Everything the Beats stood for was the opposite of the dominant culture today.”

“This is all very nice, because the ideas that Jack and the Beat generation stood for are needed today more than ever. But Im not so interested in nostalgia. Im interested in the future.”

“Paperbacks werent considered real books in the book trade. Up till then it was just murder mysteries, potboilers, 25-cent pocket books sold in newsstands. When the New York publishers started publishing quality paperbacks, there was no place to buy them.”

“I dont think our Beat Generation would even be known as that, had it not been for Ginsberg. You might say he put that whole concept together. Without it, we might have been known, but only as individuals. Separate, great writers, scattered across the landscape.”

Recipe For Happiness Khaborovsk Or AnyplaceOne 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 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.

Poetry is a naked woman, a naked man, and the distance between them.

We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings.

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 lets 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.

I am waiting for the war to be fought which will make the world safe for anarchy

Dont 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 hes stabbing the independent bookstores in the back.

If youre too open-minded your brains will fall out.