“It's unthinkable not to love — you'd have a severe nervous breakdown. Or you'd have to be Philip Larkin.”

— Lawrence Durrell

Interview in The Observer, 1990

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It's unthinkable not to love — you'd have a severe nervous breakdown. Or you'd have to be Philip Larkin." by Lawrence Durrell?

Lawrence Durrell 52

British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer 1912–1990

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

“You'd be so nice,
You'd be paradise
To come home to and love.”

Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter

"You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To"
Something To Shout About (1943)

“It's a wonderful job for people who have never had a nervous breakdown but always wanted one.”

Dick Cavett (1936) American talk show host

On hosting a talk show, "Playboy Interview: Dick Cavett", Playboy, March 1971, vol. 18, no. 3, p. 72

“Philip Larkin, a big, fat, bald librarian at the University of Hull, was unquestionably England's unofficial laureate: our best-loved poet since the war”

Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist

"Political Correctness: Robert Bly and Philip Larkin" (1997)
Context: Philip Larkin, a big, fat, bald librarian at the University of Hull, was unquestionably England's unofficial laureate: our best-loved poet since the war; better loved for our poet than John Betjeman, who was loved also for his charm, his famous beagle, his patrician Bohemianism and his televisual charisma, all of which Larkin notably lacked.
Ten years later, Larkin is now something like a pariah, or an untouchable.