I was single for a long time and felt very much alone in the world, and talk of family values upset me very much at that phase in my life, because I used to think: 'What about people like me?

I was single for a long time and felt very much alone in the world, and talk of family values upset me very much at that phase in my life, because I used to think: 'What about people like me?

Possibly I've become less funny as I've been happier.

I have a theory that if you've got the kind of parents who want to send you to boarding school, you're probably better off at boarding school.

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

I always tell students that writing a poem and publishing it are two quite separate things, and you should write what you have to write, and if you're afraid it's going to upset someone, don't publish it.

When a poem doesn't work, the first question to ask yourself is, 'Am I telling the truth?'