Carol Ann Duffy Writing Quotations

I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales

I see the shape of the poem before I start writing, and the writing is just the process of arriving at the shape.

I am always pleased to be asked to write a poem.

I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.

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.

Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.

I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.