Another Christmas PoemBlood Christmas, here again.Let us raise a loving cup:Peace on earth, goodwill to men, And make them do the washing-up.

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

Some socks are loners They can't live in pairs.

Bloody Christmas, here again, let us raise a loving cup, peace on earth, goodwill to men, and make them do the washing up.

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

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.

The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand 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 like buying clothes, especially as I get a tax-deductible allowance.

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 contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

It's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.

Certain media attracts more pulpy or low-brow things, especially when they're young. Finding the best story, in any particular medium, is going to be as good, in any other medium.

Gold will be slave or master.

One little ripple started today could create a typhoon fifteen years from now.

I'm just writing a story that I want to read.

If you've ever had somebody try to sell you something - people who can sell, they really are not manipulating you. They are selling themselves.

I don't know what I'm doing and it's the not knowing that makes it interesting.

Medicine for the dead is too late

My favorite musical? I don't. It changes all the time. I'm just a diehard, I'm totally old school, like I'll sit and watch, if they are re-doing Oklahoma in New York, I will be the first one there.