The genius of Paul Muldoon

Extracts taken from an interview with Paul Muldoon in the latest issue of The Moth

"Most of the things I do, including writing poetry, I would say, are sort of hobbyistic. It's not that they're not important. I mean, if you are a trainspotter or a stamp collector it's not that these things aren't important to you. There's this theory that if you're not consumed by the idea of being an artist you're probably not a very good one.  I just don't know about that. I know lots of people who are consumed by the idea of being an artist who are useless. They're really dreadful."

"I don't run around thinking about myself as a poet. It's like meeting people at dinner parties and, you know, somebody says 'Well I'm just a housewife.' You sort of think, well, really, I don't know about that ... I would never introduce myself to anybody as a poet. I'd just never do it. I mean, if someone comes up to me and says, 'Hello, I'm a poet,' I sort of think, my God, where's the door?"