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.

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• Carol Ann Duffy:

  Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas, and there's no

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  Poetry and prayer are very similar.

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, somethi

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy.

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  I think the dangers are different now. Our abuse of the planet and our resources is an anxiety.

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales.

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marri

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  I always say that I'll have a go and see whether the poem works and if it does, then fine.

• Carol Ann Duffy:

  I am always pleased to be asked to write a poem.