I'd rather climb Everest than go for a walk in the park.

Next quotes

• Tony Harrison:

  I was brought up on music hall, and at the same time, I was studying Greek at the age of 12.

• Tony Harrison:

  I like a direct relationship between actor and audience.

• Tony Harrison:

  For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terri

• Tony Harrison:

  I'm hoping to have a ninth decade like Matisse's.

• Tony Harrison:

  You litter poems with too much learning when you're younger.

• Tony Harrison:

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

• Tony Harrison:

  It is always better to write for the whole of society than for the poetry-reading public.

• Helen Vendler:

  I wouldn't be very happy if a poet read what I had written and said, 'What a peculiar thing to say

• Helen Vendler:

  I think that a lot of things are hard to read if you're not in the vocabulary flow of that particul

• Helen Vendler:

  I believe that poems are a score for performance by the reader, and that you become the speaking vo