"I had no one to help me, but the T. S. Eliot helped me. So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldnâ€™t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language â€“ and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers â€“ a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isnâ€™t a hiding place. It is a finding place."

-- Jeanette Winterson

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