Norman MacCaig
Norman MacCaig
Norman Alexander MacCaig OBEwas a Scottish poet and teacher. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth14 November 1910
books might
There are books up there I haven't read for many years but I wouldn't put them out. I never know when I might want to read them again.
rivers borders fish-tanks
I used to fish the Border rivers, but nowadays you have to queue up for a shot and I can't stand that.
writing mean thinking
I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry.
nature love-is hills
I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.
eye thinking names
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.
true-love nice book
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!
sex character play
If I wrote a play with four characters every single one of them would talk like me regardless of age or sex.
mimicry invention said
I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.
boys great-love lasts
I used to have a great love for Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the big boys of the last century.
light literature chuck
Well, I'm a light traveller. I chuck things away.
breathing conversation persons
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.
thinking people way
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.
men thinking voice
When I talk of hearing a poet's voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man.
long people share
People haven't got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share.