Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music.

Topography is one of my chief themes in my poetry, about the country, the suburbs and the seaside. Then there comes love... and increasingly; the fear of death.

And I think it was the outline of that church tower at Belaugh against the sky which gave me a passion for churches so that every church I've past since I've wanted to stop and look in.

Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.

People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.

Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.

On out deathbeds we're not going to regret all the work we didn't do. We're going to regret all the sex we didn't have!