I'm ensuring my place in heaven.

I don't want my poems to be sentimental, though I do acknowledge that sentiment is probably rather under-reported in a lot of people's feelings a lot of the time.

Each sudden gust of light explains itself as flames, but neither they, nor even bombs redoubled on the hills tonight can quite include me in their fear.

Poems are a hotline to our hearts, and we forget this emotional power at our peril

But Wordsworth is the poet I admire above all others.

I am a vigilant monarchist. I want to see things evolve. The direction the monarchy seems to be moving in - towards a more mainland-European model - is one I would feel sympathetic about.

Honor the miraculousness of the ordinary.

I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.

I like eating out. I like buying beautiful paintings and being surrounded by beautiful things. I have to finance that life. I can barely afford a pension scheme because I don't make enough money.

Like a lot of people, for a long time I thought that the road to hell is paved with bad sequels.

But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both.

Total Enlightenment is 'Vision without Purpose'.

Einstein was searching for String Theory. It not only reconciles General Relativity to Quantum Mechanics, but it reconciles Science and the Bible as well.

Having a Mary Poppins-themed birthday party when I was 5 - all my friends went in dresses, and I went as a chimney sweep. I was a real tomboy.

Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it's known at my house, Passover.

There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.

The monster licked his lips, long lines of whiskers twitching, and spoke in a deep growl. "Pretty, aren't I?" Curran. In midform. I broke from his gaze. "Adorable.

What a hell of a league this is. Ah hit .387, .408, and .395 the last three years and Ah ain't won nothin' yet!

When women smoke, it is hard for them to quit because they are so worried about their weight; it's a vanity issue and a mindset.

Pessimism is my default setting.

Definitely in voice-over, you have to be completely uninhibited. More than that, you have to put yourself back into the enjoyment of pretending.