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" 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
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" Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor. "
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" It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate. "
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" 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. "
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" My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets. "
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" What writing does is to reveal. "
Rita Dove
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" 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. "
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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
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" I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned. "
Rita Dove
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" I make a discovery in a poem as I write it. "
Rita Dove
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" I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on. "
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" 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. "
Rita Dove
You
Teachers
Poetry
" When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings. "
Rita Dove
Angel
Being
Something
" 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
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Capable
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" 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 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
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Day
Go
" 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
" 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 practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet. "
Rita Dove
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Young
You
" If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level. "
Rita Dove
Spirit
Trust
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" 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. "
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Colors
Christian
People
" It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded. "
Rita Dove
Need
Sometimes
Things
" There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints. "
Rita Dove
You
Life
Complaining
" I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem. "
Rita Dove
Think
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Write
" 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
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" 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
" 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. "
Rita Dove
Impossible
Imagination
Evidence
" 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. "
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" 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 didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers. "
Rita Dove
Be Real
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Never
" 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