Ferlinghetti Quotes

Well, I didn't know how to draw very well back then, in the '40s and '50s. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

We were just a one-room bookstore; we didn't have any money for lawyers. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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

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

They were looking for a stable, but we didn't have one. In fact, we weren't very stable ourselves. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

These are international criminals, and the spineless Democrats are doing nothing about it. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The world is a beautiful place to be born into - if you don't mind some people dying all the time - or maybe only starving - some of the time which isn't half so bad - if it isn't you. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The real literary editors have mostly been fired. Those that remain are all ottom line editors; everything depends on the money. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The paintings may communicate even better because people are lazy and they can look at a painting with less effort than they can read a poem. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The future of publishing lies with the small and medium-sized presses, because the big publishers in New York are all part of huge conglomerates. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti