Tom Sleigh's poetry is hard-earned and well founded. I great admire the way it refuses to cut emotional corners and yet achieves a sense of lyric absolution.

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.

All I know is a door into the dark

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

But what's in a name? We have named all of the stars and all the planets, even though they might already have names of their own. What a nerve!

Labels are for cans, not people.

The first song I wrote was called "You" and it was a love song about somebody who didn't even exist. I remember them all because I used to always write terrible poetry. I keep all my notebooks.

My life here is perfect and I'm happy at Real Madrid so, of course, I want to stay as long as I can.

Compete with the immortals

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

Boxing is strange to watch. It's impossible to take your eyes off of it. Part of our brains like to watch violence. At the same time, it's horrifying to watch two men try to knock each other out.

I have some great stories and I will get around to writing a book.

We only wanted to pay significant sums to keep truly special players.

Society is no comfort, to one not sociable.