I play with language a great deal in my poems, and I enjoy that. I try to condense language, that is, I try to express complicated but I hope real emotions as simply as possible. But that doesn't mean the poems are simple, just that they are as truthful as I can make them.

I work very hard on all my poems, but most of the work consists of trying not to sound as if I had worked. I try to make them sound as natural as possible, but within a quite strict form, which to my ears has a lot to do with musical rhythm and sound.

I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.

I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art.

There comes a time when you have to trust your own judgment, when you must close your eyes and let your instinct rule you.