Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
All Quotes by author - Rita Dove
" 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. "
Moments
Myself
Think
" As an African-American, as a woman, I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down, never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important. "
Woman
History
School
" 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. "
Voice
Capable
I Can
" Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit. "
Human Spirit
Yourself
True
" Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor. "
Should
Name
Divided
" For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard. "
Whisper
Poem
Heard
" 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. "
Art
How
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. "
Library
Feeling
Choose
" 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. "
Someone
Poetry
Good
" I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more. "
High School
Think
Science
" I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it. "
People
Creativity
I Believe
" I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step. "
Only
Step
Carry
" I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers. "
Be Real
Know
Never
" 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. "
Read
Find
Love
" If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level. "
Spirit
Trust
Choice
" I grew up in Ohio, where civil-rights accomplishments had already begun to accelerate before Martin Luther King appeared. In hindsight, we know that many people, black and white, were instrumental in changing the Jim Crow status quo on all levels. "
Up
Black And White
People
" 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. "
Through
Day
Go
" 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. "
Poem
Color
Day
" 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. "
God
Thought
Loved
" 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. "
Always
Away
Loved
" I make a discovery in a poem as I write it. "
Write
Discovery
I Write
" I'm a night person. My best times are midnight to six, actually. "
Midnight
Best
Night
" 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. "
You
Teachers
Poetry
" 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. "
Love
Poem
Process
" I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on. "
Details
Our
Most
" 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 Am
Interest
I See
" I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them. "
Children
Insight
Out
" I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that poets do write out of life. It isn't some set piece that then gets put up on the shelf, but that the impetus, the real instigation for poetry is everything that's happening around us. "
Forget
Us
Think
" I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive. "
He
Important
Reading
" I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem. "
Think
You
Write
Check our other websites:
BookDark
MusicDark