I've always associated the moment of writing with a moment of lift, of joy, of unexpected reward.

At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure.

Im a firm believer in learning by heart.

The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine.

The next move is always the test.

Best to say that once a poem is finished I trust it to make its way, and I trust readers will find their way to it and through it, if the thing has got itself rightly expressed.

Harvard meant a lot in my writing life from the beginning, even though I didnt actually do much composition on the spot.