People do seem to need poetry; it makes our ordinary life feel richer. - Elaine Feinstein

We were testing the range of the human voice - 'The Shout', Simon Armitage

...in a good poem the poet disappears. That's what the struggle with language is all about. The point is that in the finished poem you don't lay yourself bare. You create a strongbox of words. - Vicki Feaver

She is wise without portentousness, her technique faultless and her imagination fiery, political and fresh - Carol Rumens, The Independent.

Very intelligent, also witty, with a wide stretch of subject-matter and a great boldness - Anthony Burgess