I never think about poetry except when Im writing it. I mean my poetry. – Norman MacCaig
When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you cant teach poetry. This is ridiculous. – Norman MacCaig
All those authors there, most of whom of course Ive never met. Thats the poetry side, thats the prose side, thats the fishing and miscellaneous behind me. You get an affection for books that youve enjoyed. – Norman MacCaig
And if they havent got poetry in them, theres nothing you can do that will produce it. – Norman MacCaig
And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didnt think so. – Norman MacCaig
Im very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own. – Norman MacCaig
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
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
I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now. – 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. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry. – Norman MacCaig
