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

I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry.

I don't think of myself all the time.

All those authors there, most of whom of course I've never met. That's the poetry side, that's the prose side, that's the fishing and miscellaneous behind me. You get an affection for books that you've enjoyed.

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

I only keep books that I like very much. Otherwise I'd throw them out.

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.