The best books of our times have included the three mature volumes of Philip Larkin. They're very short books of poems, and very carefully arranged.

Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.

One of the most powerful devices of poetry is the use of distortions. You can go from talking about the way a minute passes to the way a century passes, or a lifetime.

I seem to keep returning to my father in poems because his personality was so extreme, so driven. He did everything to excess.

I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.

I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation.

With prose you can incorporate more details, develop scenes, sustain the tension in a special way. Prose has its own speed.