Andrew Motion Time Quotations

I'm an early bird, partly because I like to have some quiet time and partly because by 9am emails begin arriving, the phone starts ringing and I have dragons to kill of one sort or another.

I read 'Treasure Island' for the first time at university. And I started to notice then how unresolved some things were. Later, I realised that Stevenson was interested in sequels, and I wondered whether he would have gone back to it had he lived longer.

There are plenty of examples of people who have had busy lives out there in the world, trying to do good, and written very well at the same time.

I wanted to reimagine the role, in a way that was respectful of its traditional responsibilities but made them part of a wider pattern of poetry about national incidents, events, preoccupations; and to spend a great deal of time going to schools trying to demystify poetry.

More people are reading poetry now than at any time in the history of the human race.

I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.