Roger McGough

“Let me die a youngman's death not a clean and inbetween the sheets holywater death.”

“Poetry is a strange, amorphous, indefinable thing.”

“The first sign of madness is when you go to a comedy show and sit in the front row and they talk to you and you talk back.”

“A millionbillionwillion miles from home Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?)”

“For me, poetry is the shortest way of saying something.”

“I want to be the poet of the ordinary.”

“If you're going to write, you have to be a reader.”

“Humour is a serious business.”

“I think poets are people who are born with a different kind of antennae. They can pick up things that other people don't.”

“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.”

“I'm a great believer in the power of the spoken word.”

“When I was a boy, I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.”

“I write for children because I have a childish sense of humour. I'm a bit of a Peter Pan.”

“My ideal audience is the person who comes to a poetry reading and says, 'I didn't think I liked poetry, but I liked that.'”

“Liverpool is a city of storytellers.”

“I think the world is a very funny place. And I think that if you don't see the funny side of it, you're in trouble.”

“A stranger called this morning Dressed all in black and grey Put every sound into a bag And carried it away.”

“The best way to travel is with a book.”

“I think a lot of people are scared of poetry. They think it's all about daffodils and clouds and iambic pentameter.”

“I want to be a poet who speaks in a language that everyone can understand.”