“ 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
“ When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous. Norman MacCaig
“ And if they haven't got poetry in them, there's nothing you can do that will produce it. Norman MacCaig
“ 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
“ 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'v… Norman MacCaig
“ 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. T… Norman MacCaig
“ Self under self, a pile of selves I standThreaded on time, and with metaphysic handLift the farm like a lid and seeFarm within farm, and in the centre, me. Norman MacCaig
“ Landscape is my religion....God in a green legend, I lean over the poolIn a testament of leaves. I dangle my twinkling mood Before me in a cool cave roofed with branchesAnd floored with a skin of wate… Norman MacCaig
