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

I do a lot of readings.

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

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

Living at that pitch, on that edge, is something which many poets engage in to some extent.

What I try to do is to go into a poem - and one writes them, of course, poem by poem - to go into each poem, first of all without having any sense whatsoever of where it's going to end up

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.