A friend often says I'm an old man in a young man's husk. I like that. I am old-fashioned in some ways.

Fame is damaging when people become reliant on it for their sense of self, and their identity, when fame is linked to how you see yourself.

I basically have the diet of a 19th-century Irish navy, apart from the litre of stout a day. It's meat and potatoes and bread and cheese: those are my four food groups.

There are two types of poets: People who write poetically about their lives, and poets that live poetically and write about it.

I'm not an easy person to love. There are lots of times when I'm a very good boyfriend, but there are times when I'm useless. I mean, I'm a mess around the house. I talk nonstop. I become obsessed with things.

Poetry is something I love to do. Good poetry has an amazing ability to be communicative before it's even understood. I get emotional just from the beauty of words.

I've never been one of the cool people at school, but then again, I don't get the people who are cool. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that they don't interest me.