I Always Loved Science. And In Fact,

If I Begin Writing A Poem That Means I'm Intrigued In Some Way By Whatever It's About And That If I'm Not Trying To Find Something New And Pushing The Envelope In The Poem I Can't Expect My Reader To Be Particularly Excited About It Either.

It's The Combination Of The Intimate And The Public That I Find So Exciting About Being Poet Laureate.

I Think That You Certainly Don't Have To Be Aged And Travel The World To Write A Poem.

People Write Me From All Over The Country, Asking Me, And Sometimes Even Telling Me, What They Think A Poet Laureate Should Do. I Found That Immensely Valuable.

The First Book: Go Ahead, It Won't Bite. Well... Maybe A Little. More A Nip, Like. A Tingle. It's Pleasurable, Really. You See, It Keeps On Opening. You May Fall In. Sure, It's Hard To Get Started; Remember Learning To Use Knife And Fork? Dig In: You'll Never Reach Bottom. It's Not Like It's The End Of The World -- Just The World As You Think You Know It.