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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 seed-word is always so ordinary that hardly anyone perceives it. Classical odes grow from and or because, romantic lyrics from but or if. Immature verses expand a personal pronoun ad nauseam, the greatest works bring glory to a common verb.

— Alasdair Gray Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983)

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More quotes by Alasdair Gray

Work as if you were in the early days of a better nation.

Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983)

Work as if you live in the early days of a better world.

The emperor needs all the headmasters he can get. If a quarter of his people were headmasters he would be perfectly happy. But more than two poets would tear his kingdom apart.

Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983)

This slip has been inserted by mistake.

Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alasdair Gray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.