‘For solitude sometimes is best society’ - Milton, Paradise Lost
Philip Larkin in a letter to Monica Jones, 24 July 1952:
‘Seriously, I think it is a grave fault in life that so much time is wasted in social matters, because it not only takes up time when you might be doing individual private things, but it prevents you storing up the psychic energy that can then be released to create art or whatever it is.’
To Monica Jones, 10 Aug. 1968:
‘Alone, I am placid, industrious, inventive, amiable. In company, I am locked in a rictus of rage and irritation.’
(see other extracts from the letters)
1951-1953 (?)
Unpublished during L's lifetime
Source
‘Seriously, I think it is a grave fault in life that so much time is wasted in social matters, because it not only takes up time when you might be doing individual private things, but it prevents you storing up the psychic energy that can then be released to create art or whatever it is.’
To Monica Jones, 10 Aug. 1968:
‘Alone, I am placid, industrious, inventive, amiable. In company, I am locked in a rictus of rage and irritation.’
(see other extracts from the letters)
1951-1953 (?)
Unpublished during L's lifetime
Source