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

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

That's one of the great things about poetry; one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were.

Your average pop song or film is a very sophisticated item, with very sophisticated ways of listening and viewing that we have not really consciously developed over the years - because we were having such a good time

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

The ground swell is what’s going to sink you as well as being what buoys you up. These are clichés also, of course, and I’m sometimes interested in how much one can get away with.

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.