Lawrence Ferlinghetti Quotes

Autobiography is not important. Authenticity is important. The writer must fire herself through the text, be the molten stuff that welds together disparate elements. I believe there is always exposure, vulnerability, in the writing process, which is not to say it is either confessional or memoir. Simply, it is real.

Take it from your own life, write what you believe in.

I don't want to bury anything in poetry.

I do not just write, I write what I am. If there is a secret, perhaps that is it.

The only thing you can really say in a poem is what you really, really deeply believe.

I write about what I know.

Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

I don't write anything that I haven't lived. In terms of integrity, you have to write what you live. And if you write beyond what you live, it is theory. And theory is not helpful. It is just not.

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.

You have to tell the whole truth, the good and the bad, maybe some things that are uncomfortable for some people.

I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad.

What is the difference between the novelist and the liar? At some moments, I have often wondered.

You need to write about something that you really know about or you deeply connect with. Don't fake it.

I write about things and put things into my albums that I don't talk to people about. I don't hold back or sugarcoat anything.

The first rule of hip-hop is probably keep it real. And that can mean a lot of different things, but that's certainly important in reporting and storytelling.

I'm not a journalist, never pretend to be.

I love writing about things I know, and I like to be very honest in my music.

Sometimes a sincere moment is the most surprising thing you can write.

You can write anything you want to,--a six-act blank verse, symbolic tragedy or a vulgar short, short story. Just so that you write it with honesty and gusto, and do not try to make somebody believe that you are smarter than you are. What's the use? You can never be smarter than you are.

A poet's first contract is with truth.

I want to be remembered as an artist that gave you a piece of me, as opposed to some surface bullshit. I just want to be remembered as a poet that was open and honest because I wake up every morning and I'm me.

The only thing I've ever regretted is not writing more; not being more honest; not saying how it really is in Baghdad. It's hard to get there sometimes.

I started writing because it was about making my friends laugh, and when you're talking to your friends, you can't bullshit.

One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up.