“I can’t understand why people are so keen to put the clock back. What’s the point of going back to a time when you didn’t know as much?”

A defence of progress and a scepticism about romanticising the past · Interview

• Time
• Truth

“I think that writing is rather like driving: you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Frequently attributed to Larkin, though the primary source is not consistently identified · Interview / conversation

• Art
• Poetry

“Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.”

A wry account of how absence and limitation could stimulate his imagination · Conversation / interview

• Nature
• Poetry