People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.

Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.

Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.

It's strange that those we miss the most Are those we take for granted.

Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.

History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.

I ought to warn you that my verse is of no interest to people who can think.

And I think it was the outline of that church tower at Belaugh against the sky which gave me a passion for churches so that every church I've past since I've wanted to stop and look in.

And now, dear Lord, I cannot wait Because I have a luncheon date.

Topography is one of my chief themes in my poetry, about the country, the suburbs and the seaside. Then there comes love... and increasingly; the fear of death.

Hymns are the poetry of the people.

Without God's grace, the soul is dead in sin.

Are you quite sure that you want to hear it?" he asked. "Sometimes, Maria, a story that one hears starts one off doing things that one would not have had to do if one had not heard it.

I realized this is what God has dealt me, and I should be thankful considering all that's happened to me in my life, but MS caused the movies to stop - stop dead - and I miss it.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

That it will never come again is what makes life sweet.

if it's not in my email archive, I don't know it

I cannot tell a joke. But I can do a situation, that it becomes a joke.

The wild-flower wreath of feeling, the sunbeam of the heart.

Flowers and fruit are only the beginning. In the seed lies the life and the future.

You have your words, and I have mine.