It's Always Good When Women Win Things

I Still Read Donne, Particularly His Love Poems

I Have Piles Of Poetry Books In The Bathroom, On The Stairs, Everywhere. The Only Way To Write Poetry Is To Read It.

I Write Quite A Lot Of Sonnets, And I Think Of Them Almost As Prayers: Short And Memorable, Something You Can Recite.

I See The Shape Of The Poem Before I Start Writing, And The Writing Is Just The Process Of Arriving At The Shape.

I Grew Up In A Bookless House - My Parents Didn't Read Poetry, So If I Hadn't Had The Chance To Experience It At School I'd Never Have Experienced It. But I Loved English, And I Was Very Lucky In That I Had Inspirational English Teachers, Miss Scriven And Mr. Walker, And They Liked Us To Learn Poems By Heart, Which I Found I Loved Doing.