Norman MacCaig Quotations

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

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

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

I don't think of myself all the time.

But you'd have a job to find many of my poems which would seem to be very influenced by a particular person.

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

And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.

But I hang on to books. I love them. I even think they're very nice decor in a room - far better than paintings... That's not quite true!

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

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