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Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.

There have been two popular subjects for poetry in the last few decades: the Vietnam War and AIDS, about both of which almost all of us have felt deeply.

The Vietnam War and the Iraq war, in different ways, both made me feel like I could not not address them. I'm very doubtful about the usefulness of poetry to do that.

In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty.

Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.

I'm inspired by the poets, so I'm always going to give in that direction, rather than in any other. It's the making of me... and also the downfall of me.

I despair of ever writing excellent poetry.

The poets who have written the best poems about war seem to be the poets whose countries have experienced an invasion or vicious dictatorships.

Poetry is partly sympathy, don't you think? If it's any good, it gets people to think about others' points of view.

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.