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Top 30 Norman MacCaig Quotes (2025 Update)

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I’m very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.”

1. “I’m very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I only keep books that I like very much. Otherwise I’d throw them out.”

2. “I only keep books that I like very much. Otherwise I’d throw them out.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

3. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

4. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “When I go fishing I like to know that there’s nobody within five miles of me.”

5. “When I go fishing I like to know that there’s nobody within five miles of me.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

6. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

7. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

8. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

9. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

10. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “And in a way, that’s been a help to me, because I take great passions for a particular poet – sometimes it lasts for many years, sometimes only for a while. This happens to everybody.”

11. “And in a way, that’s been a help to me, because I take great passions for a particular poet – sometimes it lasts for many years, sometimes only for a while. This happens to everybody.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I don’t care whether a book is a first edition or not. I’m not a bibliophile in that word’s natural sense.”

12. “I don’t care whether a book is a first edition or not. I’m not a bibliophile in that word’s natural sense.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

13. “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.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.”

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

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

15. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “Anybody who writes doesn’t like to be misunderstood.”

16. “Anybody who writes doesn’t like to be misunderstood.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “But you’d have a job to find many of my poems which would seem to be very influenced by a particular person.”

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

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I just didn’t want to shoot other people.”

18. “I just didn’t want to shoot other people.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “When I talk of hearing a poet’s voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man.”

19. “When I talk of hearing a poet’s voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I don’t think of myself all the time.”

20. “I don’t think of myself all the time.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I used to have a great love for Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the big boys of the last century.”

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

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.”

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

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “Well, I’m a light traveller. I chuck things away.”

23. “Well, I’m a light traveller. I chuck things away.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I used to fish the Border rivers, but nowadays you have to queue up for a shot and I can’t stand that.”

24. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “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.”

25. “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

Norman MacCaig Quote: “When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can’t teach poetry. This is ridiculous.”

26. “When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can’t teach poetry. This is ridiculous.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “When I was a teacher, teachers would come into my classroom and admire my desk on which lay nothing whatever, whereas theirs were heaped with papers and books.”

27. “When I was a teacher, teachers would come into my classroom and admire my desk on which lay nothing whatever, whereas theirs were heaped with papers and books.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “And it’s impossible for me to read Henry James.”

28. “And it’s impossible for me to read Henry James.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “People haven’t got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share.”

29. “People haven’t got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “I never think about poetry except when I’m writing it. I mean my poetry.”

30. “I never think about poetry except when I’m writing it. I mean my poetry.”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “Scholars, I plead with you, Where are your dictionaries of the wind, the grasses?”

31. “Scholars, I plead with you, Where are your dictionaries of the wind, the grasses?”

— Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig Quote: “And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn’t think so.”

32. “And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn’t think so.”

— Norman MacCaig

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