Sometimes you meet people and you feel like you've known them for a long time.

Doris Day was the perfect woman.

I had a million jobs before I managed to make a living out of poetry.

I love singing. I'm a great singer.

I don't work with anybody I don't like, just for the attention.

It's miserable wearing black all the time, unless you're Johnny Cash.

I would describe my style of dress as careful.

I wish I could drive.

Everybody that read one of my poems went off and wrote poetry. They said that about the Velvets, didn't they? They didn't sell many records, but everybody that saw them formed a band.

I'm not one of nature's campers. I'm not even a glamper.

I quite like cooking, but not to the extent that I look on a kitchen as a domain.

The one thing I got right was that I already looked like a punk when punk arrived.

I've been kept from honest employment for a long, long time now. Thank God!

Most cities are the same.

Dutch food is terrible, I think. What sort of person starts the day with egg and cheese?

I'm not much of a team player when it comes to making records, I've got to say.

I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.

You can always find something better to do than writing when you're at home.

I've always lived all over the place, and left Manchester the minute I was old enough to steal a car.

To approach a poem as if it is a puzzle to be understood is to miss the point.

When you're doing poetry like mine that rhymes, it's very easy to sound like a song that didn't work out!

Too many memoirs focus on childhoods and it's a bit turgid.

People who believe in God are happier than those who don't.

I went to what can only be described as a slum school in Salford - rough and full of trainee punks - but I was very lucky in that I had one inspiring teacher, John Malone, who gave the whole class an interest in romantic poetry.