I remain loyal to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in music and to Shakespeare and Jane Austen in literature.

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.

The beauty of life depends on how you respond not in how true you answer.

The Prophet was a true friend to the king. Our true friends are those who tell us the truth, even when we don't want to hear it.

Read good books to improve yourself.

It's an insane world, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.

If history teaches anything, it teaches humility.

I think my books come out very visual, which is an obvious consequence.

She smiles through a thousand tears, and harbors adolescent fears. She dreams of all that she can never be, she wades in insecurity.

There is a dark side. I tend not to be as optimistic as Mary Richards. I have an anger in me that I carry from my childhood experiences - I expect a lot of myself and I'm not too kind to myself.

When you spin a globe and point to a city and actually go to that city, you build an allowance of missed opportunities on the back end.