Rita Dove Quotes

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writing, Around, Write

• 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

  Topics in Children

  Tags in Come, Need

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Enjoy, Working, Process

• If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Trust

  Tags in Choice, Spirit

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Find, Read

• I write short stories, and I wrote a play.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Play, Short, Write

• I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, s*x, and age.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Age

  Tags in Sex, Through

• 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

  Topics in Dream

  Tags in Older, Poet

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Try

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Nothing, Amazing, Thought

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Important, Come, Young

• I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Children

  Tags in Talent, Insight

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Less, Interest, Poetry

• I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Lives, Moments, Details

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Thought, Put

• 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

  Topics in God

  Tags in Person

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Day, Feel, Keep

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Day, Through

• I didn’t know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Live, Real, Knew

• I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that’s only the first step.

  Rita Dove

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Step, Carry, Everywhere

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 - 26th December

Births

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• 1872 - Norman Angell
• 1914 - Richard Widmark
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Deaths

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• 1945 - Bela Bartok
• 2011 - Samuel Carthorne Rivers
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• 2005 - Kerry Packer