Norman MacCaig quotes | Thousands Of Quotes

Search for quotes

And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

Norman MacCaig

Poetry

Question

If I wrote a play with four characters every single one of them would talk like me regardless of age or sex.

A terrible thing about getting oldish is that your friends start dying, and in the last ten years I have lost seven or eight of my closest.

There are some friends you don't meet for twenty years and when you meet them again it's as if no twenty years has happened - you're lucky when that happens. I feel the same about books.

People haven't got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share.

Norman MacCaig

People

Interest

I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry.

Norman MacCaig

Poetry

Writing

In fact a lot of them I think are absolute baloney. Those Charles Olsens and people like that. At first I was interested in seeing what they were up to, what they were doing, why they were doing it. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry.

Well, I love fishing. I wouldn't kill a fly myself but I've no hesitation in killing a fish. A lot of men are like that. No bother. Out you come. Thump. And that's not the only reason.

I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.

Norman MacCaig

Love

Being

I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.

I used to have a great love for Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the big boys of the last century.

Norman MacCaig

Love

Boys

I used to fish the Border rivers, but nowadays you have to queue up for a shot and I can't stand that.

Norman MacCaig

Fish

Rivers

I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.

Norman MacCaig

Invention

I only keep books that I like very much. Otherwise I'd throw them out.

Norman MacCaig

Books

It's like breathing in and out to me. It's like having a conversation with someone who isn't there. Because it has to be addressed to somebody - not a particular person, or very rarely.

Norman MacCaig

Conversation