“In America, where you'd have thought the country's so huge it couldn't happen quite so cosily, everyone's giving his imprimatur to everyone else. You line up three or four well-known poets and a couple of eminent academics on the dustjacket, and the rest of academe follow like sheep. That's death really, if you take pleasure in it. Mind you, the occasional puff's hard to resist, but you shouldn't inhale.” IfsGivingMindWellsCountryHardHappensAmericaThreeLinesPleasureKnownFourPoetHugeCoupleSheepWell KnownOccasionalPuffInhale Author:Michael Longley
“I work hard to make the poems as good as they can be, and if they're not good enough I scrap them. I find it difficult after a gap of a few years to tinker - I'm more likely to destroy.” IfsYearsHardEnoughDifficultHard WorkGood EnoughGapsScrapNot Good Enough Author:Michael Longley
