Paul Muldoon quotes:

One will never again look at a birch tree, after the Robert Frost poem, in exactly the same way.

I suppose for whatever reason I actively welcome being put down, something which perhaps goes back to my upbringing - that accusation of not being worthy which could be laid at one's door.

On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that there are so many good writers in the place.

On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that there are so many good writers in the place

I was born in Northern Ireland in 1951. I lived most of my life there until 1986 or 1987

I certainly am interested in accessibility, clarity, and immediacy.

Obviously one of the things that poets from Northern Ireland and beyond - had to try to make sense of was what was happening on a day-to-day political level.

Obviously one of the things that poets from Northern Ireland and beyond - had to try to make sense of was what was happening on a day-to-day political level

Frost isn't exactly despised but not enough people have worked out what a brilliant poet he was.

Confusion is what we're living with - not being able to make sense of what's happening to us from day to day. Whereas making sense is what we're aiming for - making sense.

I live in New Jersey now, which always gets a bad rap here and there, but I must say, I enjoy living here too.

For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry.

Last year I was a judge for a prize in England, the T.S. Eliot Prize, so I read everything that was published in England last year.

Frost isn't exactly despised but not enough people have worked out what a brilliant poet he was

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect

I live in New Jersey now, which always gets a bad rap here and there, but I must say, I enjoy living here too

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini,

The other side of it is that, despite all that, people reach out to poetry at the key moments in their lives.

The ground swell is what's going to sink you as well as being what buoys you up. These are cliches also, of course, and I'm sometimes interested in how much one can get away with

The ground swell is what's going to sink you as well as being what buoys you up. These are cliches also, of course, and I'm sometimes interested in how much one can get away with.

I believe that these devices like repetition and rhyme are not artificial, that they're not imposed, somehow, on the language

It seems to me the structure of the Quartets is too imposed

That's one of the great things about poetry; one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were.

What I try to do is to go into a poem - and one writes them, of course, poem by poem - to go into each poem, first of all without having any sense whatsoever of where it's going to end up.

Your average pop song or film is a very sophisticated item, with very sophisticated ways of listening and viewing that we have not really consciously developed over the years - because we were having such a good time.

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

I'm sure 50 percent of television ads use rhyme

For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry

I do a lot of readings.

If the poem has no obvious destination, there's a chance that we'll be all setting off on an interesting ride.

It's not as if I'm trying to write crossword puzzles to which one might find an answer at the back of the book or anything like that.

Living at that pitch, on that edge, is something which many poets engage in to some extent.

Of course, you can't legislate for how people are going to read

That's one of the great things about poetry; one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were

The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.

There's very little of the intentional about the business of writing poetry, as least as far as I can see.

We simply have not kept in touch with poetry

What I try to do is to go into a poem - and one writes them, of course, poem by poem - to go into each poem, first of all without having any sense whatsoever of where it's going to end up

Your average pop song or film is a very sophisticated item, with very sophisticated ways of listening and viewing that we have not really consciously developed over the years - because we were having such a good time