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" I want to write poems which are very emotional, but I would have some hesitation in saying I want to write poems which are sentimental. "

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" I think it is interesting to think about the absolute animal relish young people have for rhythm and rhyme. "

" Like a lot of people, for a long time I thought that the road to hell is paved with bad sequels. "

" Well, it's a badge of honour for any self-respecting poet to be criticized by Auberon Waugh. But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both. "

" If I were to die thinking that I'd written three poems that people might read after me, I would feel that I hadn't lived in vain. Great poets might expect the whole body of their work, but most of us - well, I would settle for a handful. "

" I'm an early bird, partly because I like to have some quiet time and partly because by 9am emails begin arriving, the phone starts ringing and I have dragons to kill of one sort or another. "

" You see the names of places roundabout? They're mine now, and I've turned them inside out. "

" I read 'Treasure Island' for the first time at university. And I started to notice then how unresolved some things were. Later, I realised that Stevenson was interested in sequels, and I wondered whether he would have gone back to it had he lived longer. "

" But I can't and don't ever want to write bell-yanking confetti-tossing hat-throwing poems. "

" Poetry is at the centre of my life, too, emotionally speaking, and intellectually speaking - it's just that I'm one of those people who enjoy doing other stuff as well. "

" I'm also a great believer in the dream life; that while we're asleep, a deep subconscious connection is made about our profoundest fears, hopes, loves, losses, dreads and desires. "

" Those who say we should dismantle the role of Poet Laureate altogether, the trick they miss is that being called this thing, with the weight of tradition behind it, and with the association of the Royal family, does allow you to have conversations and to open doors, and wallets, for the good of poetry in a way that nothing else would allow. "

" I've found a different way to scent the air: already it's a by-word for despair. "

" I'm not much given to making shamanistic remarks about all this, but I'm a great believer in the dream life. If I can carry without spilling whatever it is that drips into my head in the night to my desk, then that's valuable. "

" I wish I'd been better able to resist the sense of obligation to write some of the poems I did. It's in the nature of commissioned work to be written too much from the side of your mind that knows what it's doing, which dries up the poetry. "

" If people connect me with the Romantics in general, they probably connect me most with Keats. But Wordsworth is the poet I admire above all others. "

" I'm not precisely saying that a really good board meeting at the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Coucil) makes me want to go and write poetry, but there is a pleasure in doing that sort of thing well. "

" Keats writes better about poems than anybody I've ever read. The things that he says about what he wants his own poems to be are the ideals that I share. "

" But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both. "

" Each sudden gust of light explains itself as flames, but neither they, nor even bombs redoubled on the hills tonight can quite include me in their fear. "

" These places, and the ancient things you know, You won't know soon. I'm working on it now.' "

" I don't want my poems to be sentimental, though I do acknowledge that sentiment is probably rather under-reported in a lot of people's feelings a lot of the time. "

" I've always thought that the balance between the side of my mind that knows what it is doing and the side that really hasn't got a clue has to be carefully maintained because if you write too knowingly then you get chilly, and if you write too unknowingly you write bollocks that nobody else can understand. "

" But Wordsworth is the poet I admire above all others. "

" I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time. "