Poetry is at the centre of my life, too, emotionally speaking, and intellectually speaking – its just that Im one of those people who enjoy doing other stuff as well. – Andrew Motion
I deeply adored my mum. She was an extraordinary person, even for the prejudice Im likely to have. She was beautiful, amusing, a tremendous elaborator of things into comic proportions and extravagant in her imagination. – 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
While also, importantly, not wanting to dumb it down or pretend the days of difficult poetry are over, because we live in a pluralist culture and theres room for difficult poetry alongside rap and everything else. And poetry wont be for everyone, but everyone should have the choice. – Andrew Motion