The very pointlessness of a sea walk is it's attractiveness to me.

It was a tedious saying among hippies: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I was very much part of the problem.

I'm a great believer in the capsule wardrobe - a wardrobe where's there's a limited palate of black colours.

I never saw a painting that would not be improved by the addition of tropical fish.

I love talking about anything, except for myself.

I don't go looking for new fads.

I had TB as a boy. They said my skeletal frame never developed properly.

When I sit down to eat, the greatest spice of all is hunger.

Maybe there are luckier people than me, but I don't know who that would be. I feel pretty lucky. I've had a nice life - I don't know how I could be luckier.

No one wants to be a source of anxiety to everybody they know.

At the beginning, there was no chance I'd get published so I thought I'd give it a go live. I had to perform in rock band places and working men's clubs, where you wouldn't expect to find poetry. I ploughed a lonely furrow.

It took me 30 years for people to consider me an overnight success.

I've had a few jobs, but if you want to be a writer, you're better off getting a job that doesn't require that you do anything.

Idleness - a job that you have to go to, but not necessarily do anything - is the poet's friend.

By the '80s, anything to do with punk was perceived as rancid. Me being known as the 'punk poet' meant my work and I plummeted.

When you write poetry you are always addressing the world somehow.

It amazes me there are movies about writers… such inert, uneventful lives.

The main thing a poem ought to be is musical. It should be rhythmic. You should hear it as a musical piece in your head as you're writing it.

I judge by appearances. People tell me I shouldn't.

I've never met a happy atheist.

My trouser needs are simple: a narrow leg in a dark colour, with jean detailing.

My favourite writers are columnists.

From social pariah to King of the World? It's taken 45 years, so I've been able to adjust to it!

I eat like a pig. Tripe is the only thing I won't eat.

The '80s were a lost decade.

Fame just ain't a natural situation. But I shouldn't have worried because everyone thought I was a bit famous even before I'd done anything; people just assumed I was famous.

I went to what can only be described as a slum school in Salford - rough and full of trainee punks - but I was very lucky in that I had one inspiring teacher, John Malone, who gave the whole class an interest in romantic poetry.

People who believe in God are happier than those who don't.

Too many memoirs focus on childhoods and it's a bit turgid.

When you're doing poetry like mine that rhymes, it's very easy to sound like a song that didn't work out!

To approach a poem as if it is a puzzle to be understood is to miss the point.

I've always lived all over the place, and left Manchester the minute I was old enough to steal a car.

You can always find something better to do than writing when you're at home.

I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.

I'm not much of a team player when it comes to making records, I've got to say.

Dutch food is terrible, I think. What sort of person starts the day with egg and cheese?

Most cities are the same.

I've been kept from honest employment for a long, long time now. Thank God!

The one thing I got right was that I already looked like a punk when punk arrived.

I quite like cooking, but not to the extent that I look on a kitchen as a domain.

I'm not one of nature's campers. I'm not even a glamper.

Everybody that read one of my poems went off and wrote poetry. They said that about the Velvets, didn't they? They didn't sell many records, but everybody that saw them formed a band.

I wish I could drive.

I would describe my style of dress as careful.

It's miserable wearing black all the time, unless you're Johnny Cash.

I don't work with anybody I don't like, just for the attention.

I love singing. I'm a great singer.

I had a million jobs before I managed to make a living out of poetry.

Doris Day was the perfect woman.

I love being in a car.