Between 9am and 3pm is when I work most intensely

- Carol Ann Duffy

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

- Carol Ann Duffy

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.

- Carol Ann Duffy

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

- Carol Ann Duffy

It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal

- Carol Ann Duffy

Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.

- Carol Ann Duffy

What will you do now with the gift of your left life?

- Carol Ann Duffy

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

- Carol Ann Duffy

Poetry and prayer are very similar.

- Carol Ann Duffy