John McEnroe looks as if he is serving round the edge of an imaginary building.

You should never trust anyone who listens to Mahler before they're forty.

It's a big thing to call yourself a poet. All I can say is that I have always written poems. I don't think I'm interested in any discussion about whether I'm a good poet, a bad poet or a great poet. But I am sure, I want to write great poems. I think every poet should want that.

Like a Volvo, Bjorn Borg is rugged, has good after-sales service, and is very dull.

Murray sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.

Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer.

Generally it is our failures that civilize us. Triumph confirms us in our habits.