Anybody who writes doesn't like to be misunderstood.

I just didn't want to shoot other people.

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.

When I talk of hearing a poet's voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man.

I used to fish the Border rivers, but nowadays you have to queue up for a shot and I can't stand that.

In fact a lot of them I think are absolute baloney. Those Charles Olsens and people like that. At first I was interested in seeing what they were up to, what they were doing, why they were doing it. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry.

I don't think of myself all the time.