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When I have worries, fears or a love affair, I have the luck of being able to transform it into a poem.

Hmmm. I think a lot of people can write poems that are howls of anguish. I think I've probably written such things and then torn them up.

I shall try to write a poem that is about the moment but doesn't betray things that are true to me as a poet.

Whether you want to entertain or to provoke, to break hearts or reassure them, what you bring to your writing must consist of your longings and disappointments.

I have a deep and ongoing love of Iceland, particular the landscape, and when writing 'Burial Rites,' I was constantly trying to see whether I could distill its extraordinary and ineffable qualities into a kind of poetry.

Romantic poetry had its heyday when people like Lord Byron were kicking it large. But you try and make a living as a poet today, and you'll find it's very different!

Well, if this is poetry, I'm certainly never going to write any myself.

I love romantic poetry.

Sometimes you have a poem that you really want to write and it never happens.

My secret dream is to write an epic poem. That's probably the most pretentious thing I've said.