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

- Norman Maccaig

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

- Norman Maccaig

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!

- 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

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

- 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 used to fish the Border rivers, but nowadays you have to queue up for a shot and I can't stand that.

- Norman Maccaig

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

- 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