I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.

When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me.

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

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.

It's like breathing in and out to me. It's like having a conversation with someone who isn't there. Because it has to be addressed to somebody - not a particular person, or very rarely.

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.

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!