I still read Donne, particularly his love poems

Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.

My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy

Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.

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.

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

She stood upon a continent of ice, which sparkled between sea and sky, endless and dazzling, as though the world kept all its treasure there; a scale which balanced poetry and prayer.