The 5-minute Interview: Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet

British-Jamaican Benjamin Zephaniah, 49, published his first collection of poems, 'Pen Rhythms', aged 22 and has gone on to be one of Britain's most prolific black writers and social commentators. He is Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective in Liverpool and Creative Artist in Residence at Cambridge University. Tonight he controls programming on Sky Arts as part of its 'Friday Night Hijack' series

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be...

Writing an article for a black student handbook. They've asked me to write a few words of encouragement. I'm writing about the privilege of having an education and how people should use it to help community.

A phrase I use far too often is...

I say "you know" at the end of sentences, you know? I keep telling myself that I should stop doing it, you know?

I wish people would take more notice of...

So many things. I wish people would pay attention to general manners. And no one smiles. I wish people would smile more.

The most surprising thing that happened to me...

When I was really young, I wrote a letter to Bob Marley and he wrote back to me. It was just a real inspiration. I was really silly, I didn't keep the letter. For that reason, now if anyone writes to me, I will always write back to them.

>A common misperception of me is...

People think I'm really angry because of my poetry and what I am concerned about. People expect me to me a lot angrier and more bitter than I really am. But I don't walk around shouting.

I am not a politician but...

I'd like to be minister of education. I would make it mandatory that every British child visits another country with an entirely alien culture, where people eat differently, go to the toilet differently. It would just help for a greater understanding.

I'm good at...

I can run fast. I'm a good listener, even if it is with people I completely disagree with. I could sit down and listen to a racist all night just to see how they came to their conclusion.

I'm very bad at...

Anything to do with numbers. Maths and all that. And I can't swim.

The ideal night out is...

I'd be out with a really beautiful vegan woman in a vegan restaurant and I'd have rice and peas and ackee, and after that, we would go to a poetry reading and then to a club, with either hip-hop or some reggae.

In weak moments I...

It all depends. One is I go to my gym and hit the punchbag, or I go into my garden and do tai chi. It depends if I'm angry and need a chill out.

You know me as a poet but in another life I'd have been...

I would have been a primary school teacher or a martial arts teacher. I just love little kiddies before they develop all their attitude.

The best age to be is...

About 28. I felt kind of adult but I was still young. After 30 it gets all too serious. People then start asking: "Have you sorted out your pension?"

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this...

I would like my gravestone to say: "He tried to love every body."

Alice-Azania Jarvis