Wendy Cope
Wendy Cope
Wendy Cope, OBEis a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with her husband, the poet Lachlan Mackinnon...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth21 July 1945
Possibly I've become less funny as I've been happier.
light interesting poet
The interesting thing is that you don't often meet a poet who doesn't have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems because they're afraid of being seen as light versifiers.
firsts telling-the-truth asks
When a poem doesn't work, the first question to ask yourself is, 'Am I telling the truth?'
school parent want
I have a theory that if you've got the kind of parents who want to send you to boarding school, you're probably better off at boarding school.
wife poetry reason
The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it.
jobs love-you shopping
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange The size of it made us all laugh. I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave— They got quarters and I had a half. And that orange it made me so happy, As ordinary things often do Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park This is peace and contentment. It's new. The rest of the day was quite easy. I did all my jobs on my list And enjoyed them and had some time over. I love you. I'm glad I exist.
writing people suggestions
Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion! I write to make people anxious and miserable and to worsen their indigestion.
thinking long people
I was single for a long time and felt very much alone in the world, and talk of family values upset me very much at that phase in my life, because I used to think: 'What about people like me?
thinking said journalist
I've said what I'm prepared to say in my poems, and then journalists think that you're going to tell them a whole lot more.
men two years
Bloody men are like bloody buses - you wait for about a year and as soon as one approaches your stop two or three others appear.
I've never been more famous than I was, suddenly, in 1986.
I like you more than I would like to have a cigarette.
book writing thinking
In my case, the long gaps between my books have got quite a lot to do with lack of confidence. A lot of the time when I'm not writing I start thinking I can't do it.