Each sudden gust of light explains itself as flames, but neither they, nor even bombs redoubled on the hills tonight can quite include me in their fear. – Andrew Motion
Thanks partly to the kind of poets that we now have and partly to funding, theres been a gigantic shift in the way poetry is perceived… Poems on the Underground, poets in schools, football clubs, zoos. – Andrew Motion
I wanted to reimagine the role, in a way that was respectful of its traditional responsibilities but made them part of a wider pattern of poetry about national incidents, events, preoccupations and to spend a great deal of time going to schools trying to demystify poetry. – Andrew Motion
I like eating out. I like buying beautiful paintings and being surrounded by beautiful things. I have to finance that life. I can barely afford a pension scheme because I dont make enough money. – Andrew Motion
Of the primary emotions, fear is the one that bears most directly on survival. Children show fear. Adults try not to, maybe because its shameful, or, in some circumstances, dangerous. The fear response is automatic, though, and your body runs through its reflexes whether you want it to or not. – Sebastian Junger