I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy.

Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.

Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.

The sea is as near as we come to another world.

A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.

I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.

There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.

There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.

Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.

Coolness is not an image that can be bought or worn. True cool is an attitude that is projected from a person who is extremely comfortable in their own skin.

In the winter, the snow had become glittery fairy dust that had given all the creatures of the meadow warm clothes and a fire to help them endure the winter.

Give and ye shall receive.

It was the first time I traveled alone, but I was not scared.

I've seen it all before. Now that it's over I shoulda known better than to think this was real and you could be mine.

I have often been told that I have many of the same mannerisms as Jack Benny and certainly Bob Cummings.

I want my pictures to be things. I want them to be made up of marks that are physically and individually self-sufficient.

You cannot teach what you don't know. You cannot give energy if you're not on fire on the inside.

The world that used to nurse us now keeps shouting inane instructions. That's why I ran to the woods.

Why is it taken for granted that women should earn less than men? No! They have the same rights.