I listen to the radio and I like all kinds of music, you know, but I like to hear from people who have been there. Hank Williams has been there.

GIFT You tell me that silence is nearer to peace than poems but if for my gift I brought you silence (for I know silence) you would say This is not silence this is another poem and you would hand it back to me

The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.

I think there's an appetite for seriousness. Seriousness is voluptuous, and very few people have allowed themselves the luxury of it.

It's inappropriate for an elderly chap to register, you know, authentically, his feelings, you know, because they really can be interpreted. So you have to get quite covert as you get older. Or you have to find some avuncular way, you know, of responding.

You've got a deadline. Well, I do, too: death.

I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.