When I talk of hearing a poet's voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man. Norman MacCaig More Quotes by Norman MacCaig More Quotes From Norman MacCaig When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me. Norman MacCaig five miles fishing However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird. Norman MacCaig offering literature bird I learned words, I learned words; but half of them Norman MacCaig exercise liars looks All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about. Norman MacCaig literature writing people And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so. Norman MacCaig taught literature thinking 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. Norman MacCaig twenties book years All those authors there, most of whom of course I've never met. That's the poetry side, that's the prose side, that's the fishing and miscellaneous behind me. You get an affection for books that you've enjoyed. Norman MacCaig fishing sides book 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. Norman MacCaig fishing literature men 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. Norman MacCaig eight dying years Landscape is my religion. ...God in a green legend, I lean over the pool In a testament of leaves. I dangle my twinkling mood Before me in a cool cave roofed with branches And floored with a skin of water. Norman MacCaig caves skins water When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous. Norman MacCaig edinburgh euthanasia ridiculous People haven't got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share. Norman MacCaig literature long people I only keep books that I like very much. Otherwise I'd throw them out. Norman MacCaig literature book I just didn't want to shoot other people. Norman MacCaig literature want people I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry. Norman MacCaig mimicry invention literature I used to have a great love for Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the big boys of the last century. Norman MacCaig great-love literature boys I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now. Norman MacCaig american-poetry literature years In some ways I'm a reticent man, and for quite a number of years there wasn't very much of my real true deep feelings in my writing. Norman MacCaig real writing men 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 breathing literature conversation 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. Norman MacCaig literature people thinking
