I think it's a question which particularly arises over women writers: whether it's better to have a happy life or a good supply of tragic plots.

My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you. Whatever you’ve got lined up, My heart has made its mind up And if you can’t be signed up This year, next year will do. My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you.

The interesting thing is that you don't often meet a poet who doesn't have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems because they're afraid of being seen as light versifiers.

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 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.

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.

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