Carol Ann Duffy

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

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

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

As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short.

What people don't understand about Sarah Palin is that she is a rancher's wife. From Alberta down to Texas I've known women like that: good common sense, bright and vilified by city people.

I owe a great deal to Harold Hobson, doyen drama critic of the 'U.K. Sunday Times,' who championed me as Shakespeare's Richard II at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival.