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" 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. "
Rita Dove
High School
Think
Science
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" 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. "
Rita Dove
Up
Black And White
People
" 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. "
Rita Dove
Eternity
Community
Will
" My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets. "
Rita Dove
May
Favorite
Than
" I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step. "
Rita Dove
Only
Step
Carry
" To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet. "
Rita Dove
Play
Young
You
" There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints. "
Rita Dove
You
Life
Complaining
" 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
Poetry
Plan
Library
" It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded. "
Rita Dove
Need
Sometimes
Things
" 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
Moments
Myself
Think
" It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate. "
Rita Dove
Public
Being
Poet
" 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
Colors
Christian
People
" 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
Loved
" Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor. "
Rita Dove
Should
Name
Divided
" 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 Am
Interest
I See
" I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on. "
Rita Dove
Details
Our
Most
" 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
Think
Two
Try
" 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
Me
Poetry
Seen
" 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
Someone
Poetry
Good
" 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
God
Thought
Loved
" 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
Art
How
Literature
" 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
Without
Success
" 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
Read
Find
Love
" 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. "
Rita Dove
Woman
History
School
" 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
Poem
Color
Day
" 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
Poetry
Time
Lens
" What writing does is to reveal. "
Rita Dove
Does
Reveal
Writing
" Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure. "
Rita Dove
Only
End
Spectrum
" 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
Voice
Capable
I Can
" Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our days, and they're the things that sustain us. And they're the things that certainly can become worthy of poetry. "
Rita Dove
Nothing
Worthy
Measure
" 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
Life
College
Write