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 propel…

- Norman Maccaig

And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

- Norman Maccaig

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 …

- Norman Maccaig

I learned words, I learned words; but half of them died from lack of exercise. And the ones I use often look at me with a look that whispers, Liar.

- Norman Maccaig

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

- Norman Maccaig

People haven't got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share.

- Norman Maccaig

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 …

- Norman Maccaig

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

When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me.

- Norman Maccaig