I write because my ink must flow like blood. The written must be spoken. Patience Agbabi

Not only rich music, an easy lyricism, but also grit, and earthy honesty, a willingness to be vulnerable and clean. - Gwendolyn Brooks

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard. - Anne Sexton

Every writer nearly always has a lost woman. - Patricia Beer

I, too, sing America. - 'I, Too', Langston Hughes

My poems are the product of a relationship between a side of my mind which is conscious, alert, educated and manipulative, and a side which is as murky as a primaeval swamp. - Andrew Motion