When I Go Fishing I Like To

When I Was Asked To Be Writer In Residence At Edinburgh I Thought, You Can't Teach Poetry. This Is Ridiculous.

When I Go Fishing I Like To Know That There's Nobody Within Five Miles Of Me.

If I Wrote A Play With Four Characters Every Single One Of Them Would Talk Like Me Regardless Of Age Or Sex.

And Some Poets Are Far Better Read Off The Page Because They're Very Bad Speakers. I'm Thinking Of One In Particular Whom I Won't Name, A Good Poet, And He Reads In Such A Dry, Boring Way, Your Eyes Start Drooping.

All I Write About Is What's Happened To Me And To People I Know, And The Better I Know Them, The More Likely They Are To Be Written About.