And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.

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

If I wrote a play with four characters every single one of them would talk like me regardless of age or sex.

People haven't got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share.

All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about.

And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

Well, I'm a light traveller. I chuck things away.