Quotes from Wendy Cope

I like a quiet life.

There is some humour in 'Family Values.' I don't want everyone to think it's not going to make them laugh. But there are quite a lot of poems there that aren't funny at all.

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.

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.

When a poem doesn't work, the first question to ask yourself is, 'Am I telling the truth?'

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 always tell students that writing a poem and publishing it are two quite separate things, and you should write what you have to write, and if you're afraid it's going to upset someone, don't publish it.

Another Christmas PoemBlood Christmas, here again.Let us raise a loving cup:Peace on earth, goodwill to men, And make them do the washing-up.