Rita Dove Quotes (58 quotes)
![]() | “All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: "Conversations with Rita Dove", edited by Earl G. Ingersoll, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2003, p. 137, "Brushed by an Angel's Wings, Grace Cavalieri, 1995" - ISBN: 9781578065509 |
![]() | “Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: "An Online Interview with Rita Dove", June 18, 1994, Las Vegas, Nevada |
![]() | “Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: Interview on April 8, 1997 by Jesse Kornbluth (BookpgJK) |
![]() | “For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about it. I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: Interview on April 8, 1997 by Jesse Kornbluth (BookpgJK) |
![]() | “Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: "An Online Interview with Rita Dove", June 18, 1994, Las Vegas, Nevada |
![]() | “Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: "An Online Interview with Rita Dove", June 18, 1994, Las Vegas, Nevada |
![]() | “I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.” ―Rita Dove Source/Notes: Interview on April 8, 1997 by Jesse Kornbluth (BookpgJK) |
![]() | “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 Source/Notes: Interview on April 8, 1997 by Jesse Kornbluth (BookpgJK) |
![]() | “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 Source/Notes: Interview on April 8, 1997 by Jesse Kornbluth (BookpgJK) |
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Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons
Rita Dove
Born: August 28, 1952 (age 65)
Nationality: American
Occupation: Poet, author
Bio: 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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“We sacrifice to dress, till household joys And comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder clean; puts out our fires, And introduces hunger, frost and woe, Where peace and hospitality might reign. Dress changes the manners.”
—
Voltaire