To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
If the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there's a tendency to treat everything on the… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I never think of my audience when I write a poem. I try to write out of whatever is haunting me; in… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I've always felt that the poems I've written which have historical context are hopefully not just simply plucking something out of history… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I think if you put something in a file that says "war poems" or "love poems" that you already restrict the way… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
My inspiration comes from everywhere, just walking down the street and I never know where it's going to come from, so I keep a… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
To write for PC reasons, because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
The First Book: Go ahead, it won't bite. Well... maybe a little. More a nip, like. A tingle. It's pleasurable, really. You see, it… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
Sometimes a word is found so right it trembles at the slightest explanation. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
Listen how they say your name. If they can't say that right, there's no way they're going to know how to treat you proper,… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
