It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded. Rita Dove More Quotes by Rita Dove More Quotes From Rita Dove I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive. Rita Dove reading play thinking I wish someone had told me that my stories are really mine to tell. In other words, anything that I think is important or that has moved me has the ability to move somebody else. Rita Dove wish moving thinking 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 revision poet process My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends. Rita Dove parent mother father 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 definitions community gone 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 keeps on opening. You may fall in. Sure, it's hard to get started; remember learning to use knife and fork? Dig in: you'll never reach bottom. It's not like it's the end of the world -- just the world as you think you know it. Rita Dove book fall thinking 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 race age sex I was not interested in doing the plot of Oedipus in blackface. I did wonder, what would these people have been like if they hadn't been in that situation?... One could look at Oedipus, or at my character Augustus, as a cynical schemer who did everything because he was hungry for power. But that's just too easy. I'm more interested in how humans can embody conflicting goals and emotions. Rita Dove oedipus character people For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard. Rita Dove aria heard years I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding. Rita Dove optimistic perspective art Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate. Rita Dove know-how self knows 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 far-away dream book 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 folders color feels We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there's a tendency to treat everything on the surface level and process things quickly. This is antithetical to the kind of openness and perception you have to have to be receptive to poetry.poetry seems to exist in a parallel universe outside daily life in America. Rita Dove poetry america moving The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with. Rita Dove grew-up joy mean What's a word, a talisman, to hold against the world? Rita Dove talismans world I change jobs like drinking water ... And as I grow accustomed to the new flavor of a drink I regard as delicious, yes, vital, something fades, life balks. So I break camp; I shed skins. Rita Dove drinking jobs water What writing does is to reveal. Rita Dove doe writing 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 yield writing thinking My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets. Rita Dove poet bread may
