Tony Harrison

The ear will surrender even at those times when the eye wants to close, when the eye doesn't want to watch.

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

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

I have always loved radio as a medium.

The imagination has its limits, and you have to face up to that.

I spent a lot of time on recce. It is a kind of creative chaos, but I like the sense of creative serendipity.

Statues are one of the ways I try to test the traditions of European culture against the most modern destructive forces. I often make a point of seeking them out and have used them as mouthpieces in my film poetry, as with Heinrich Heine in 'The Gaze of the Gorgon.'

There's a kind of despair about whether art can really do anything, but you have to incorporate that despair into the way you work. I try to soak my work in my sense of futility and fury.