I don't care whether a book is a first edition or not. I'm not a bibliophile in that word's natural sense.

I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.

However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

But I hang on to books. I love them. I even think they're very nice decor in a room - far better than paintings... That's not quite true!

When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me.

I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.

I used to fish the Border rivers, but nowadays you have to queue up for a shot and I can't stand that.

When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.

And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

There are some friends you don't meet for twenty years and when you meet them again it's as if no twenty years has happened - you're lucky when that happens. I feel the same about books.

It's like breathing in and out to me. It's like having a conversation with someone who isn't there. Because it has to be addressed to somebody - not a particular person, or very rarely.

Every step forward is made at the cost of mental and physical pain to someone.

Where beauty ends is where the artist begins

I'd love to spend a day being supermodel beautiful.

Richard Pryor is, in my mind, the most honest comedian. He bared his soul to people. I think that's why everybody loved him so much.

John Ottman's music has emerged...as a brilliant new sound in the spectrum of Motion Pictures.

You learn as much from failure as from success, Dad always says. Though no one admires you for it.

His nerve, his memory, and I can't remember the third thing.

I think all of us, politicians and churchmen, should do our utmost to change the society so that there would be no need for violence.

A child convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. The reward for a thing well done, is to have done it.

My personal attitude toward atheists is the same attitude that I have toward Christians, and would be governed by a very orthodox text: "By their fruits shall ye know them."