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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
God
Thought
Loved
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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
Life
College
Write
" 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 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 make a discovery in a poem as I write it. "
Rita Dove
Write
Discovery
I Write
" 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
Through
Day
Go
" My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets. "
Rita Dove
May
Favorite
Than
" What writing does is to reveal. "
Rita Dove
Does
Reveal
Writing
" I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers. "
Rita Dove
Be Real
Know
Never
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
Poet
Most
Dream
" I'm a night person. My best times are midnight to six, actually. "
Rita Dove
Midnight
Best
Night
" Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor. "
Rita Dove
Should
Name
Divided
" I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on. "
Rita Dove
Details
Our
Most
" 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
Think
Sometimes
People
" 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
" Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit. "
Rita Dove
Human Spirit
Yourself
True
" Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. "
Rita Dove
Powerful
Poetry
Language
" 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
Mother
Parents
You
" 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
" 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
Going
You
Write
" 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
People
American Dream
American
" 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
" 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
" 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
Library
Feeling
Choose
" I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned. "
Rita Dove
Way
Always
Been
" 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 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
" 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