Rita Dove Quotes

• A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It’s concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

• 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

  Topics in Success

  Tags in Without, Imaging

• When we are touched by something it’s as if we’re being brushed by an angel’s wings.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Angel, Wing, Touched

• What writing does is to reveal.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writing, Reveal

• 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

  Topics in Death

  Tags in Bring, Took

• Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Human, Words, Find

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Anything, Matter

• There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Times, Complaints, Instead

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Rest, Plan, Reading

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Same, Cheerful, Sound

• The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Joy

  Tags in Find, Working

• 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

  Topics in Dream

  Tags in Different, American

• Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in End, Play, Whole

• 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

  Topics in Country

  Tags in Over, Sometimes

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Alone, Come, Before

• My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Favorite, Bread

• 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

  Topics in Father, Mother

  Tags in Parents

• Libraries are where it all begins.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Begin, Libraries

• It’s unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there’s this need to have things quantified and graded.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Need, Sometimes, Schools

• It’s the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Find, Public, Exciting

Rita Dove (50)

Birth:	28th August, 1952
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Poet

About

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993–1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the first African American to be appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 out of the previous "consultant in poetry" position.

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Today's Anniversary - 21st November

Births

• 1952 - Lorna Luft
• 1870 - Mary Johnston
• 1965 - Reggie Lewis
• 1912 - Eleanor Powell
• 1844 - Ada Cambridge

Deaths

• 1969 - Norman Lindsay
• 1999 - Quentin Crisp
• 1922 - Ricardo Flores Magon
• 1926 - Joseph McKenna
• 1945 - Robert Benchley