Tony Harrison

“Why shouldn't poetry address what happened yesterday and be published in the newspaper?”

“I've realised darkness and light are inter-dependent, just as death is an enhancer of life.”

“I think poems belong as much in the news pages as the literary pages. A lot of people throw aside the literary pages! Whereas everybody looks at the news section.”

“I'm hoping to have a ninth decade like Matisse's.”

“I've written on public matters, but I don't understand how anyone could tout me as a possible poet laureate when I wrote a poem on the abdication of King Charles III or about the sex life of the Royals... anybody who knew my work would know I'm not a contender.”

“I really admire the great Japanese artists who could change their name three times in a lifetime. You could get rid of one and renew yourself.”

“Coming from a very inarticulate family made me try to speak for those who can't express themselves and created a need for articulation at its most ceremonial - poetry.”

“You litter poems with too much learning when you're younger.”