But you'd have a job to find many of my poems which would seem to be very influenced by a particular person.

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!

When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.

A terrible thing about getting oldish is that your friends start dying, and in the last ten years I have lost seven or eight of my closest.

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

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