Carol Ann Duffy

• "The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.“
• "I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.“
• "If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership, I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn't, I'd ignore it.“
• "I still read Donne, particularly his love poems.“
• "I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.“
• "It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal.“
• "Poetry and prayer are very similar.“
• "Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.“
• "I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.“
• "I think poetry can help children deal with the other subjects on the curriculum by enabling them to see a subject in a new way.“
• "You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.“
• "If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership, I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn't, I'd ignore it.“
• "Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas, and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.“

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