51 Quotes by Tony Harrison

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

I like a direct relationship between actor and audience.

For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terrible subject, but it's in a form that is so sensually gratifying that it connects the surviving heart to the despairing intellect.

I'm hoping to have a ninth decade like Matisse's.

You litter poems with too much learning when you're younger.

I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. 'Poet' covers it all for me.

It is always better to write for the whole of society than for the poetry-reading public.

'Night Mail' belongs quintessentially to the age of steam. It is impossible to simply go with the idea of remaking it.

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.