I'm very proud of the fact that I'm one of Britain's biggest selling poets. That gives me a huge amount of pleasure.

False praise is worse than no praise.

Human beings are definitely changing the planet, but how much impact they are having on climate, I don't know and I don't care.

The rich are not a contented tribe. The demands from others to share their wealth become so tiresome, so insistent, they often decide they must insulate themselves. Insulation eventually breeds a mild form of paranoia.

I've always noted with some awe the reading habits of the Australian public. Australians read more newspapers and magazines per head of population than almost any other country in the world.

I thoroughly object to getting old. If you could let me be 16 again, I'd give you everything I've got and everything I'll ever have.

The reason I don't carry a mobile phone is I don't want people to know where I am!

This modern mania for interfering in other's lives, usually under the guise of health and safety concerns, is highly irritating and counterproductive. Down with the nanny state.

Poetry is one of the oldest of all art forms, and one of its powers for shamans and tribal leaders was the mnemonic.

People who get trapped in the tunnel vision of making money think that is all there is to life.

It's very difficult to be continuously charitable in a capitalistic society. You've also got to make sure that you can pay everyone who works for you.

No woman or girl is going to want to spend time looking at pretty dresses on the Internet. Vogue is going to be around for a long time to come.

The age of celebrity editors and monstrous staffing are over.

There are far too many people in university in Britain. If you want to make money, be a plumber.

You can actually be bored stiff while you're dying.

There are as many forms of happiness as sorrow, though most prove fleeting.

I want to prove that if you write in strict meter and rhyme about subjects people care about, they will buy poetry.

I love the business of business; I love the risk raking.

Discourse has ended in America. It's all just shouting and ranting and demonization. Do you know how the rest of the world laughs at you guys? Have you got any idea? They're just rocking with laughter night and day.

It's a long, slow sunset for ink-on-paper magazines, but sunsets can produce vast sums of money.