Blue Quote by Rita Dove

It wasn't until I was named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. in high school though that I officially began calling myself a poet. I…

— Amanda Gorman

I knew if I lived long enough I would be poet laureate of something.

— Patti Smith

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a…

— Rita Dove

Pretty much the day I stopped being laureate, the poems that had been few and far between came back to me, like birds in…

— Andrew Motion

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

— Rita Dove

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

As poet laureate, I was asked to be a spokesman for literature.

— Robert Hass

At college, I wanted to be a poet. I liked the extremely concentrated language, the atmosphere of otherworldliness.

— Walter Kirn

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.

— Thornton Wilder

I really wanted to be a poet - until I realized that I really didn't have what it took to be a poet.

— Celeste Ng

I've written on public matters, but I don't understand how anyone could tout me as a possible poet laureate when I wrote a poem…

— Tony Harrison

What's really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.

— Amanda Gorman