I would like people to come into my Dreamworld and then choose to stay.

I have learned so much from working with other poets, travelling and reading with them, spending days discussing poems in progress. There is the sense that we are all, as writers, part of something which is more powerful than any of us.

My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.

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.

The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing myself and I don't see why any reader should put up with it.

A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.

A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.