GEORGE MURRAY

I am certainly suffering from a modicum of performance anxiety.

I wanted to rock back and forth between myth and distant futures, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It felt a bit like prophecy and a bit like storytelling.

The whole competition thing disturbs me. Not that I wasn't a part of it when I first started.

I guess there is also an element of deliberate change involved. Each of my books has been, at least from my point of view, radically different from the last.

I was writing notes, but not composing poems. The Hunter began to develop out of this fragmented process.

I'm not interested in being easy anymore. Readable, yes. Easy, no.

I am still interested in the long or serial poem, but have written a few smaller things. I may start sending to journals again in a year or so... that's about it.

In fact, in some ways, I actually feel much more confident about the quality of Carousel than I do about The Cottage Builder's Letter: probably because of its cohesive nature.

I no longer feel pressure to produce fiction.

The poetry community here has been extraordinarily welcoming.

A sequence works in a way a collection never can.

I think, for me, humour needs to be used like a strong spice - sparingly.

I suppress the vast majority of what I write.

My self-editing process is intense.

Even the people who have had success and made money writing these books of fiction seem to feel the need to pretend it's no big deal, or part of a natural progression from poetry to fiction, but often it's really just about the money, the perceived prestige.

With 'Carousel' I had an idea and it all came out quickly.

I don't think there's anything wrong with someone having to read a poem twice. Or even a book.

Humour is a fine line to walk in poetry, as in fiction. I just think it's harder to write. It's harder to keep the respect of the reader too.

Well, we all start thinking we're going to be Romantic rock stars, but then reality hits and you realize no one reads you but other poets.

I've often entertained paranoid suspicions about my fridge and what it's been doing to my poetry when I'm not looking, but I never even considered that my fan was thinking about me.

New York was breaking my concentration and disintegrating my thoughts.

Then I discovered I loved writing poetry more than fiction.

In my opinion, Al Moritz may be the best poet of his generation in Canada.

I think the main influence has been living in New York City. Aside from all the crap around 9/11, I find it very demanding to think amid all the noise and visual pollution.

I do try to let what is obviously unintended yet naturally good stay in.