Quotes from Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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.

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.

A lot of manuscripts that come in, you wonder by what outrageous fantasy the author believes that this should be pressed into print.

When I was a boy I was my father.

Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately.

If you're too open-minded your brains will fall out.

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.

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.