My Favourite Book

What draws me to poetry is the language, the music of words, the terseness. The essence of good literature is poetry. And the best example you'll find of good literature, where many sections are so tightly written that there's not a word you can change, is the Bible.

I'm speaking of the Old Testament - not the New - which approximates to my idea of very good writing, especially The Song of Songs, the Psalms, the Book of Job. I can read them over and over and I do. In fact, I always have a copy of the Bible at hand.