My inspiration comes from everywhere, just walking down the street and I never know where it's going to come from, so I… — 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… — 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… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
If I begin writing a poem that means I'm intrigued in some way by whatever it's about and that if I'm not… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I'm never quite sure how the poem is going to resolve itself and that I'm always in some way surprised. I make… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
At the very beginning when I begin writing a poem I try not to think of the audience or anyone at all… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
Crassly put: When I write, I am trying not to bore myself and my readers. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
My best times are midnight to six actually. I'll leaf through my notebooks and if something catches my eye and I feel… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
In fact, sometimes traveling the world is a way of not writing a poem, but it's the quality of experience. It's being… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers. — 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
I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as… — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling… — 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
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… — 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
