The ordinary can be absolutely miraculous.

You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet

If you were going to choose a way of making your way in this world and a place to start from, you might not choose poetry and you might not choose Huddersfield.

We still need a voice that thinks before it speaks.

People who read poetry, for example, like the feel, the heft and the smell of a book.

In all the poems I've written I've not really engaged in politics, and when I've found myself moving in that direction I've always stopped myself.

And wonder, dread and war have lingered in that land where loss and love in turn have held the upper hand.

The Huddersfield that I like best is a large town with a big heart and an open mind.

I wondered if people might not have had enough of Simon Armitage and wondered whether I hadn't had enough of Simon Armitage.

This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.

This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture. Keep hold of what you have, it will harm no other, for hatred comes home to the hand that chose it.

Schools are made for the average. The holes are all round, and whatever shape the pegs are they must wedge in somehow. One hasn't time to bother about anything but the average.

I guess I've always been a groupie. My first date was a bull rider called Tommy Lee Bryant. We'd go to the rodeo every Saturday and Sunday. The bull riders were the cool guys.

The test of a belief is not exclusively in the belief itself, but also in the intentions and actions of those who embrace it.

A guy should find out what the woman likes. Every woman is different, so you can't just assume what works on one will work on another.

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

Excellence is the name of the game.

The danger of computers becoming like humans is not as great as the danger of humans becoming like computers.

Living life, I mean, my two stepsons, my husband, I think every day - today interaction inspires me - as far as music goes - inspires my art.

You weren't created just to consume resources, you were put on this Earth to make a contribution.

It's no fun throwing fastballs to guys who can't hit them. The real challenge is getting them out on the stuff they can hit.