Tony Harrison

For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terrible subject, but it's in a form that is so sensually gratifying that it connects the surviving heart to the despairing intellect.

I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. 'Poet' covers it all for me.

Theatre has to be theatrical. It has to draw attention to itself, like poetry.

There's a kind of despair about whether art can really do anything, but you have to incorporate that despair into the way you work. I try to soak my work in my sense of futility and fury.