The very old certainly do not go back on lunch remains but they do bite back at old conversational topics.

Once an interesting idea or theme occurs to me then I would want to write a poem about it. The rest, frankly, is not difficult.

They had always told me that I wrote like a man.

Once in a while I catch myself wondering whether I would have found the courage to write if I had not started to write when I was too young to know what was good for me.

There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.

Soyinka's Death at Dawn, Auden's Musée des Beaux Arts, Stevie Smith's Not Waving but Drowning and Wislawa Szymborska's Some People come to mind immediately. But there are plenty, plenty more that I enjoy.

The very old certainly do not go back on lunch remains but they do bite back at old conversational topics.