Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

Rita Dove

Distilled Language Most Poetry

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I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

Rita Dove

Details Explore Hinge Intimate

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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.

Rita Dove

Around Began College Entire

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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.

Rita Dove

Always Away Child Childish

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I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.

Rita Dove

Any Be Because Could

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I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person.

Rita Dove

Always Away Book Dream

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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.

Rita Dove

Asking Book Choose Entirely

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I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

Rita Dove

About Because Elements Language

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It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.

Rita Dove

Need Schools Sometimes Things

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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.

Rita Dove

About Ever Gesture Good

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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.

Rita Dove

Chemist Could Ends Exciting

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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!

Rita Dove

About Appointed Because Been

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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.

Rita Dove

After Amazing Another Happened

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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.

Rita Dove

Asking Country Even Found

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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.

Rita Dove

Children Come Curriculum Early

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It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

Rita Dove

About Being Combination Exciting

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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.

Rita Dove

Advise Congress Distinct Duties

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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.

Rita Dove

Arts Been Every Go

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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.

Rita Dove

Before Evidence Existed Front

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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.

Rita Dove

Find Love Read Reading

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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.

Rita Dove

Anyone Anything Because Dealing

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Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

Rita Dove

Being Complexities Human Means

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Rita Dove

Does Reveal Writing

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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.

Rita Dove

American Different Dream Lives

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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!

Rita Dove

Allen Bring Death Entire

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I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

Rita Dove

About Age Every Feared

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There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.

Rita Dove

About Complaining Complaints Instead

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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.

Rita Dove

About Art Could Fail

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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.

Rita Dove

Being Capable Larger Laureate

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For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.

Rita Dove

Heard Many Poem Thought

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Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

Rita Dove

End Geared Only Play

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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.

Rita Dove

Day Drafts Go Guilt

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I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

Rita Dove

Carry Everywhere First Me

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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.

Rita Dove

About According Color Day

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I write short stories, and I wrote a play.

Rita Dove

Play Short Stories Write

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I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

Rita Dove

About Am Arts Federal

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I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.

Rita Dove

Ability Alive Come Extremely

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My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets.

Rita Dove

Bread Butter Favorite May

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I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.

Rita Dove

Artistic Believe Creativity Going

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I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

Rita Dove

Beaten Children Gets Insight

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The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with.

Rita Dove

Find Grew Joy Me

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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.

Rita Dove

Discover Enjoy Lots Love

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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.

Rita Dove

Alive Back Became Childhood

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When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings.

Rita Dove

Angel Being Something Touched

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The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.

Rita Dove

Clouds Ecstasy Feel Me

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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.

Rita Dove

Because Cheerful Curious Double

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Libraries are where it all begins.

Rita Dove

Begins Libraries Where

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If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.

Rita Dove

Choice Full Generous Level

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It makes me furious to hear haters of all skin colors - especially Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists - deride other people because of their different beliefs and lifestyles.

Rita Dove

Because Beliefs Christian Colors

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Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.

Rita Dove

Divided Equality Fervor Ideological

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"50 Rita Dove Quotes & Sayings

Rita Dove

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

Rita Dove

It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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!

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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!

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

Rita Dove

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.

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

Rita Dove

I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.

Rita Dove

My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets.

Rita Dove

I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.

Rita Dove

I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

Rita Dove

The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with.

Rita Dove

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.