Rita Dove quotes - page 2

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. View quote
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. View quote
Rita Dove
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. View quote
Rita Dove
I write short stories, and I wrote a play. View quote
Rita Dove
The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with. View quote
Rita Dove
My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets. View quote
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. View quote
Rita Dove
I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step. View quote
Rita Dove
I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it. View quote
Rita Dove
What writing does is to reveal. (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. View quote
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. View quote
Rita Dove
Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Rita Dove
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. View quote
Rita Dove
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. View quote
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. View quote
Rita Dove
I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers. View quote
Rita Dove
It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate. (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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Rita Dove
The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something. View quote
Rita Dove