Like a lot of people, for a long time I thought that the road to hell is paved with bad sequels.

I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.

But Wordsworth is the poet I admire above all others.

I read ' Treasure Island' for the first time at university. And I started to notice then how unresolved some things were. Later, I realised that Stevenson was interested in sequels, and I wondered whether he would have gone back to it had he lived longer.

In a fragile environment, we need to be aware of ourselves as members of a uniquely powerful species living among other species who are quite as interesting as we are but vulnerable to us because we are cleverer in more destructive ways.

I'm ensuring my place in heaven.

Poems are a hotline to our hearts, and we forget this emotional power at our peril