83 Rita Dove Quotes
What writing does is to reveal
If you can't be free, be a mystery
Libraries are where it all begins
I write short stories, and I wrote a play
I tried. I really did. And I'm enjoying it all
If fucking were graceful, desire an alibi
I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step
I had been taught by my parents and grandparents to pay my dues
I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them
When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings

Rita Dove quotes with pictures

The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with
Very often, people who are not familiar with poetry are operating out of fear
I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers
For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard
I got the Pulitzer on my husband's 40th birthday and I was planning a surprise party
If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level
You need determination, some sense, some faith in the human ability to persevere and to triumph
Inherent in the idea of being a writer is to have the whole continuum, the whole circle be completed
There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints
Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit
It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate
It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded
Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure
My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets
I was in Europe, and I had a way of looking back on America and distancing myself from my experience
We are presented with a benign image of the saints, but there must have been tension
Just how are you going to catch someone's attention? What are you going to say right away?
The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something
I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on
I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry
I didn't have to be absolutely faithful according to biographical truth. I could go after an inner truth. That freed me
There were people all over the country hungry for poetry and eager to embrace the multitude of voices
Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet
I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day
I wanted to write a novel that was a novel, not a poetic rendition of something. I felt that the genre demanded that of me
I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it
I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age
Canaries are the birds that, of course, have a beautiful song, it's also a term that musicians use for the female vocalist
How do we remember our lives? How do we think of our lives or shape our lives in our own consciousnesses?
In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things
If they don't read, if they don't love reading, if they don't find themselves compulsively reading, I don't think they're really a writer
We want to be perfect, well-rounded individuals. All of us have our quirks. We've got these embarrassing moments in our lives
All the moments that make up a human being have to be written about, talked about, painted, danced, in order to really talk about life
I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive
I was political and outspoken. I took Washington kids to the Library of Congress to read their poems and to be recorded for the archives
I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years, or longer
I have two younger sisters and an older brother. They're all chemists or mathematicians. The whole family is full of scientists
I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding
I can't tell you if I was born like this. I do know that, as a child, I knew that being out of control or biased doesn't serve your cause well
In the case of Toni Morrison, I have felt for so long that we were having our own conversation somewhere. She's from Ohio
It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing
There's a feeling that you're almost there, but you don't even know how to get to that point in the poem, and then you just simply keep working
If I liked a poem by one person, I would read the rest of them by that person. I was about 11 or 12 at this point. I had no idea who these people were
You're raised by parents who are always concerned to raise you so you aren't a little animal in society. There was this feeling that you had to be nice
I had heard of Shakespeare, sure, but I didn't know the relative value of Shakespeare, of Emily Dickinson, or all these people that I was reading
I wanted to have some kind of evening at the White House to honor the art of the story, but the bureaucracy was so tough, it just never happened
The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now
The canary is the bird that miners take down to the mines to test for poison gas leaks, and if the bird dies they know that the mine is not safe
I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream were too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person
I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things
I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing
Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine
Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early
People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable
What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world!
All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself
The first moment that really stood out in terms of public excitement and recognition was when I got the Pulitzer. I was 34. I had no idea I was being considered
There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry
For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about it. I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art
My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends
One definition of eternity is that we are not alone on this planet, that there are those who've gone before and those who will come, and that there is a community of spirits
The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the double strings
If we're going to solve the problems of the world, we have to learn how to talk to one another. Poetry is the language at its essence. It's the bones and the skeleton of the language. It teaches you, if nothing else, how to choose your words
If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can't imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America's alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart, and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings
Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture
To write for PC reasons, because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is really going to matter to anyone else. It has to matter to you
Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature
Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely
I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!
Let us see again all the ambiguities and contradictions that make up a human being: the good and the bad and how they can exist in one person and make a complex individual

Rita Dove sayings and pictures

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before, it's impossible
I did pay homage to important figures in history. We see the side that no one sees when the lights are on. And looking at history through two ordinary people was a natural step
I had no idea who Toni Morrison was. I had the feeling this person was like my next door neighbor who had been talking to me, and in a way, she was. We grew up about 40 miles apart