“That is the best instruction you could ever give a poet: whether you'r...” — Alice Oswald Quote

“That is the best instruction you could ever give a poet: whether you're examining a bad line in a poem or a bad motive for action, keep well your repining - meaning, don't ignore the honest muttering in your head.”

“It's the stickiness of earth that makes it problematic - the way it stains your straps and ingrains your hands so you can't quite tell where you start and stop.”

“A dead tree, cut into planks and read from one end to the other, is a kind of line graph, with dates down one side and height along the other, as if trees, like mathematicians, had found a way of turning time into form.”

“While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.”

“Fiction has always been a way of examining society and its flaws and trying to expose them.”

“In examining the potential of individuals, we must focus on their strengths and not just their mistakes. We cannot be limited by what they may have spilled in the kitchen.”