Every Short Story, 1951-2012 Quotes

“A good poem is a tautology. It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word which has never before been spoken. The seedword is always so ordinary that hardly anyone perceives it. Classical odes grow from and or because, romantic lyrics from but and if. Immature verses expand a personal pronoun ad nauseam, the greatest works bring glory to a common verb. Good poems, therefore, are always close to banality, over which, however, they tower like precipices.”
― Alasdair Gray, Every Short Story, 1951-2012

“Her book was filled with centaurs because she had not fully grasped the complexity of actual people, actual horses.”
― Alasdair Gray, Every Short Story, 1951-2012