I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.

If we think of what's up ahead, with climate change and wars over water, it's very frightening.

The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.

It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal

You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.

I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way.

I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.