Norman MacCaig

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

"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."

"And if they haven't got poetry in them, there's nothing you can do that will produce it."

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

"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."

"I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry."