Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"The pennycandystore beyond the El is where I first fell in love with unreality"

"It was a face which darkness could kill in an instant"

"Poetry is the shadow cast by our imaginations."

"I was the all-American boy, the Eagle Scout. I remember I was at my girlfriend's apartment, and there were these strange publications like The Nation and The New Republic. I started looking at them and thought, "Gee, this is weird; people saying things against America?" It was an awakening. On the East Coast, I'd never even heard of conscientious objectors."