When I get sent manuscripts from aspiring poets, I do one of two things: if there is no stamped self-addressed envelope, I throw it into the bin.-If there is, I write and tell them to f**k off.

I didn't choose poetry: poetry chose me.

You have to distinguish between things that seemed odd when they were new but are now quite familiar, such as Ibsen and Wagner, and things that seemed crazy when they were new and seem crazy now, like 'Finnegans Wake' and Picasso.

Dear, I can't write, it's all a fantasy: a kind of circling obsession.

Depression is to me as daffodils were to Wordsworth.

Get stewed:Books are a load of crap.

Since the majority of me Rejects the majority of you, Debating ends forthwith, and we Divide.'' Philip Larkin