My words are the garment of what I shall never be Like the tucked sleeve of a one-armed boy.

Modern poetry, for me, began not in English at all but in Spanish, in the poems of Lorca.

Politically it would be terribly repressive to prevent people from having as many children as they want. But something's got to prevent it; and it won't be pleasant... We're still behaving in ways that have become disastrous... I don't think this helps us to survive... We're very species-centric... and now exist at the expense of every other form of life on Earth.

I wouldn't be happy about being considered a love poet or an environmental - I don't want any of those tags.

On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree

I also think that life itself is both indifferent to us and the source of all of our joys and everything that we love. And it's necessary to accept the one in order to love the other.

Any work of art makes one very simple demand on anyone who genuinely wants to get in touch with it. And that is to stop. You've got to stop what you're doing, what you're thinking, and what you're expecting and just be there for the poem for however long it takes.