I've said what I'm prepared to say in my poems, and then journalists think that you're going to tell them a whole lot more.

On Waterloo Bridge where we said our goodbyes, the weather conditions bring tears to my eyes. I wipe them away with a black woolly glove And try not to notice I've fallen in love On Waterloo Bridge I am trying to think: This is nothing. you're high on the charm and the drink. But the juke-box inside me is playing a song That says something different. And when was it wrong? On Waterloo Bridge with the wind in my hair I am tempted to skip. You're a fool. I don't care. the head does its best but the heart is the boss- I admit it before I am halfway across

Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion! I write to make people anxious and miserable and to worsen their indigestion.

In my case, the long gaps between my books have got quite a lot to do with lack of confidence. A lot of the time when I'm not writing I start thinking I can't do it.

Bloody men are like bloody buses - you wait for about a year and as soon as one approaches your stop two or three others appear.

I've said what I'm prepared to say in my poems, and then journalists think that you're going to tell them a whole lot more.

The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it.