Quotes from Tony Harrison

Back in our silences and sullen looks, for all the Scotch we drink, what's still between us not the thirty or so years, but books, books, books.

Articulation is the tongue-tied's fighting

I need to look back on my poetic ventures, make sense of them as a whole, and move forward... and to experiment without external demands.

I was brought up on music hall, and at the same time, I was studying Greek at the age of 12.

Coming from a very inarticulate family made me try to speak for those who can't express themselves and created a need for articulation at its most ceremonial - poetry.

I often find myself quoting from Victor Hugo after one of my theatrical ventures. 'Now that my play is a failure,' he once said, 'I find I love it all the more.' I first quoted that after 'Square Rounds' at the Olivier in 1992.

Weeping for the dead's a waste of breath -they're lucky, they can't die again.

Our heads will happen cold when this is found.

The imagination has its limits, and you have to face up to that.