I was born in Northern Ireland in 1951. I lived most of my life there until 1986 or 1987

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'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.

For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry

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.

I do a lot of readings.

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