Norman MacCaig

But you'd have a job to find many of my poems which would seem to be very influenced by a particular person.

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

When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.

It's like breathing in and out to me. It's like having a conversation with someone who isn't there. Because it has to be addressed to somebody - not a particular person, or very rarely.

Anybody who writes doesn't like to be misunderstood.

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

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.

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

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.

Well, I'm a light traveller. I chuck things away.

I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.

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.