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

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

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

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.

Landscape is my religion. ...God in a green legend, I lean over the pool In a testament of leaves. I dangle my twinkling mood Before me in a cool cave roofed with branches And floored with a skin of water.

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