We simply have not kept in touch with poetry

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

I certainly am interested in accessibility, clarity, and immediacy.

The ground swell is what’s going to sink you as well as being what buoys you up. These are clichés also, of course, and I’m sometimes interested in how much one can get away with.

One will never again look at a birch tree, after the Robert Frost poem, in exactly the same way.

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.

Confusion is what we're living with - not being able to make sense of what's happening to us from day to day. Whereas making sense is what we're aiming for - making sense.

That's one of the great things about poetry; one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were.

I believe that these devices like repetition and rhyme are not artificial, that they're not imposed, somehow, on the language.

I suppose for whatever reason I actively welcome being put down, something which perhaps goes back to my upbringing - that accusation of not being worthy which could be laid at one's door.

Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests

When we need reasons to do something, we pretend to have it.

You hear horror stories about scary mothers who just want their kids to be famous. I could be waitressing in a restaurant, and my mum would be happy as long as I was happy.

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

It's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Our culture says that ruthless competition is the key to success. Jesus says that ruthless compassion is the purpose of our journey.

Science ... is organized common sense.

The Universe favors the brave. When you resolve to lift your life to its highest level, the strength of your soul will guide you to a magical place with magnificent treasures.

We will go back to playing like Manchester United.

You gotta climb the steps... you can't skip them