I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.

I used to have a great love for Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the big boys of the last century.

But I hang on to books. I love them. I even think they're very nice decor in a room - far better than paintings... That's not quite true!

I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.

And in a way, that's been a help to me, because I take great passions for a particular poet - sometimes it lasts for many years, sometimes only for a while. This happens to everybody.

However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

I just didn't want to shoot other people.