There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.

I'm not really quiet or shy. Ask any of my friends! But I always ground my poetry in life itself. Poetry is an art of language, though, so I am always aware of every word's meaning, or multiple meanings.

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

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

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.

I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson.

Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet.