It's not as if I'm trying to write crossword puzzles to which one might find an answer at the back of the book or anything like that.

It seems to me the structure of the Quartets is too imposed.

I believe that these devices like repetition and rhyme are not artificial, that they're not imposed, somehow, on the language.

On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that there are so many good writers in the place.

One will never again look at a birch tree, after the Robert Frost poem, in exactly the same way.

If the poem has no obvious destination, there's a chance that we'll be all setting off on an interesting ride.

The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.