For you where never my blood sister so no more shall I call you little sister

When you are young you don't always realise how full of doubts everybody is.

The human longing for story is so powerful, so primitive, that it seems like something not learned, but locked into our genes.

I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of themselves - although I am sure that really they were as uncertain as I was.

As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intimates.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away.