My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy.

I still have a feeling that I haven't written the best that I can write. I think all poets must feel this: that there is constantly something new to be discovered in the language. It's like a thrilling encounter, and you can find things.

When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.

The poem is the literary form of the 21st century. It's able to connect young people in a deep way to language... it's language as play.

I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales.

It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal.

I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon,...

I like to think that I’m a sort of poet for our times.

C’est la vie. When I got ill, it hurt like hell. I bought a kidney with my credit card, then I got well. I keep Faust’s secret still –the clever, cunning, callous bastard didn’t have a soul to sell.

When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else’s. It’s like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn’t know was there, full of treasure and light.