English - Poet | October 26, 1952 -
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.
Andrew Motion
LifePoetryPeopleMy LifeDoing
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.
GoodPoetryMeSayingDoingMeeting
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.
LifeGreatNightDreamI CanDesk
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.
WorkGreatPeopleMeThinkingDie
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.
BalanceMindThoughtDoingYouSide
I think it is interesting to think about the absolute animal relish young people have for rhythm and rhyme.
AnimalPeopleThinkInteresting
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.
TimeBackTreasureIslandFirst Time
Like a lot of people, for a long time I thought that the road to hell is paved with bad sequels.
TimePeopleRoadThoughtHellBad
I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.
HopeTimeDreamWayWriteOver
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.
WorkNaturePoetryMindBetterWish
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.
MeFreeWriteBigModernPoet
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.
MeFreeWriteBigModernDeal
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