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

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 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.

Well, I love fishing. I wouldn't kill a fly myself but I've no hesitation in killing a fish. A lot of men are like that. No bother. Out you come. Thump. And that's not the only reason.

I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.

For success is for the ignorant That is what makes it original

Well, my whole thing is that I'm kind of like a show-off!

I enjoy going to Palm Springs when I'm living in Los Angeles.

No, you have to talk first. You wanted to talk. It means you say something and I respond and you talk back again. It's one of the human race's most shining achievements. It's called a conversation.

I play dumb like Jessica Simpson plays dumb. But we know exactly what we're doing. We're smart blondes.

I hope I haven't maxed out, because I'm not satisfied. I hope I can be a better ball player, and I hope I'm on my way.

Doubt is an old disease. Faith is an old medicine. Compassion is an old doctor. Concern is an old nurse.

There was something sweet in watching him pull himself back together, restoring the façade he wore for the world while I knew at least a little of the man beneath it.

Anyway, several rewrites later, Del Rey Books did publish my first novel, and it did become the first work of fiction on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list.