Explore Quotes by Carol Ann Duffy

The poem is the literary form of the 21st century. It's able to connect young people in a deep way to language... it's language as play.

I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd 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.

I always wanted a child. Being a mother is the central thing in my life.

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

The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text. It's a perfecting of a feeling in language - it's a way of saying more with less, just as texting is.

I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.

Having a child takes you back to all those parts of your own childhood that you had hidden away.

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

I still have a feeling that I haven't written the best that I can write. I think all poets must feel this: that there is constantly something new to be discovered in the language. It's like a thrilling encounter, and you can find things.

I write in that space between Ella's childhood and mine. I know it all sounds a bit sinister.

Edinburgh is my favourite city. We'll be doing a lot of children's theatre and galleries.

The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.

I think poetry can help children deal with the other subjects on the curriculum by enabling them to see a subject in a new way.

Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.

Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.

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

Poetry, above all is a series of intense moments ­ its power is not in narrative. I'm not dealing with facts, I'm dealing_x000D_with emotion.

When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.

My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy

I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales

Poetry and prayer are very similar.