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Rita Dove Quotes
Rita Dove Quotes
Rita Dove
American
Poet
Born:
Aug 28
,
1952
About
Me
People
Poet
Think
You
Related authors:
Edgar Allan Poe
Emily Dickinson
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Maya Angelou
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Robert Frost
T. S. Eliot
Walt Whitman
There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.
Rita Dove
Life
You
Complaining
Complaints
About
Something
Instead
Times
Your
For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.
Rita Dove
Thought
Poem
Aria
Overheard
Years
Heard
Whisper
Many
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
Life
Me
Amazing
Will
Thought
My Life
Nothing
Another
Least
Surprise
Quite
After
Happened
Much
Pulitzer
I grew up in Ohio, where civil-rights accomplishments had already begun to accelerate before Martin Luther King appeared. In hindsight, we know that many people, black and white, were instrumental in changing the Jim Crow status quo on all levels.
Rita Dove
People
Black
Black And White
King
Before
White
Changing
Jim
Jim Crow
Status
Status Quo
Martin
Martin Luther
Martin Luther King
Crow
Had
Know
Accelerate
Instrumental
Hindsight
Were
Accomplishments
Up
Begun
Ohio
Where
Grew
Quo
Many
Appeared
Levels
Luther
Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.
Rita Dove
Yourself
Complexities
Spirit
True
Human
Being
Really
Means
Human Spirit
I'm a night person. My best times are midnight to six, actually.
Rita Dove
Best
Times
Person
Six
Midnight
Actually
Night
I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.
Rita Dove
Time
Age
Sex
Every
Filtered
Every Time
Apprehensive
Would
Would-Be
Feared
About
Poetry
Through
Talked
Race
Lens
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
Love
Enjoy
Poem
Poets
Discover
Lots
Revise
Revision
Process
Younger
Working
Things
Libraries are where it all begins.
Rita Dove
Libraries
Begins
Where
One definition of eternity is that we are not alone on this planet, that there are those who've gone before and those who will come, and that there is a community of spirits.
Rita Dove
Alone
Will
Before
Gone
Community
Those
Definition
Spirits
Come
Eternity
Planet
Who
I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.
Rita Dove
Our
Intimate
Our Lives
Details
Smaller
Most
Hinge
Prefer
Explore
Moments
Lives
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
Life
Writing
College
Entire
Entire Life
More
More And More
Scheduling
Write
Until
Around
Began
Realized
Really
I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.
Rita Dove
People
Live
Be Real
Could
Writers
Never
Knew
Know
Because
Real
Any
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
God
Book
Thought
Too
Dream
Had
Written
Read
Always
Person
Loved
Far
Far Away
Who
Away
You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before, it's impossible.
Rita Dove
You
Impossible
Before
Imagination
Evidence
Possible
See
Something
Never
Existed
Front
Right
Imagine
To write for PC reasons, because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is really going to matter to anyone else. It has to matter to you.
Rita Dove
You
Matter
Think
Else
Ought
Write
Never
Because
Dealing
Subject
Yield
Going
Anyone
Anyone Else
Anything
Really
Reasons
Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.
Rita Dove
Pleasure
Rap
Geared
Only
Verbal
Aural
End
Whole
Play
Spectrum
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
Day
Guilt
High
Poem
Through
Take
Longer
Go
Many
Drafts
Two
I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.
Rita Dove
Me
First
Everywhere
Carry
Only
Step
First Step
Notebook
I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.
Rita Dove
Creativity
People
Believe
Make
Going
May
Artistic
Mean
I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that poets do write out of life. It isn't some set piece that then gets put up on the shelf, but that the impetus, the real instigation for poetry is everything that's happening around us.
Rita Dove
Life
People
Think
Everything
Out
One Of The Things
Some
Poetry
Poets
Tend
Write
Impetus
Put
Piece
Around
Shelf
Real
Up
Forget
Gets
Happening
Then
Us
Things
Set
To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.
Rita Dove
You
Speak
Poet
Practice
Young
Symphony
Scales
Order
Your
Play
I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem.
Rita Dove
You
Travel
World
Think
Poem
Write
Aged
Certainly
As an African-American, as a woman, I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down, never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important.
Rita Dove
History
Woman
School
Picture
Important
White
Down
Think
Way
Though
Entered
Never
Been
Male
Handed
Very
Privileges
Taught
African-American
Which
Might
Certain
Aspects
Things
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Edgar Allan Poe
Emily Dickinson
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