Quotes by Carol Ann Duffy

Poets sing our human music for us.

I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didnt read poetry, so if I hadnt had the chance to experience it at school Id never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.

Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas, and theres no way Id do anything to undermine that belief.

You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just whats in your heart.

I still read Donne, particularly his love poems.

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 didnt, Id ignore it.

“Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head, warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.”

“bees are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.”