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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
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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
Someone
Poetry
Good
" 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
" I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned. "
Rita Dove
Way
Always
Been
" For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard. "
Rita Dove
Whisper
Poem
Heard
" 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
He
Important
Reading
" I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it. "
Rita Dove
People
Creativity
I Believe
" I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step. "
Rita Dove
Only
Step
Carry
" 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
My Life
Amazing
Me
" 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
Twilight
World
Page
" I write short stories, and I wrote a play. "
Rita Dove
Write
Stories
Wrote
" 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 think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them. "
Rita Dove
Children
Insight
Out
" I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on. "
Rita Dove
Details
Our
Most
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. "
Rita Dove
Powerful
Poetry
Language
" It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate. "
Rita Dove
Public
Being
Poet
" Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor. "
Rita Dove
Should
Name
Divided
" 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
Love
Poem
Process
" When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings. "
Rita Dove
Angel
Being
Something
" 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
Shadow
Time
Think
" I make a discovery in a poem as I write it. "
Rita Dove
Write
Discovery
I Write
" 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'm a night person. My best times are midnight to six, actually. "
Rita Dove
Midnight
Best
Night
" 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
" 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
" I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem. "
Rita Dove
Think
You
Write