All Norman MacCaig Quotes
I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.
Norman MacCaig
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I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.
Norman MacCaig
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And in a way, that's been a help to me, because I take great passions for a particular poet - sometimes it lasts for many years, sometimes only for a while. This happens to everybody.
Norman MacCaig
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And if they haven't got poetry in them, there's nothing you can do that will produce it.
Norman MacCaig
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If I wrote a play with four characters every single one of them would talk like me regardless of age or sex.
Norman MacCaig
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When I talk of hearing a poet's voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man.
Norman MacCaig
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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
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I don't care whether a book is a first edition or not. I'm not a bibliophile in that word's natural sense.
Norman MacCaig
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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
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Well, I love fishing. I wouldn't kill a fly myself but I've no hesitation in killing a fish. A lot of men are like that. No bother. Out you come. Thump. And that's not the only reason.
Norman MacCaig
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And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.
Norman MacCaig
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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 happens. I feel the same about books.
Norman MacCaig
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I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry.
Norman MacCaig
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