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
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
When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you cant teach poetry. This is ridiculous. – Norman MacCaig
It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. – W. H. Auden