Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy
Dame Carol Ann Duffy DBE FRSLis a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in May 2009. She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold the position...
memories inspiration imagination
The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.
left
What will you do now with the gift of your left life?
prayer memorable writing
I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.
edinburgh favourite theatre
Edinburgh is my favourite city. We'll be doing a lot of children's theatre and galleries.
simple way use
I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way.
writing feelings trying
Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.
christmas father taken
Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas, and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.
war thinking water
If we think of what's up ahead, with climate change and wars over water, it's very frightening.
energy prose
My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy
book writing fairy-tale
I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales
opposites wonder said
Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.
perfect evening april
How would you prepare to die on a perfect April evening?
winning fiction males
It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal
Between 9am and 3pm is when I work most intensely