Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate. Rita Dove More Quotes by Rita Dove More Quotes From Rita Dove By making us stop for a moment, poetry gives us an opportunity to think about ourselves as human beings on this planet and what we mean to each other. Rita Dove opportunitymeanthinking When I was young, I was older than I am today. Rita Dove youngtoday Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine. Rita Dove imagineimaginationart If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level. Rita Dove trustlevelschoices My best times are midnight to six actually. I'll leaf through my notebooks and if something catches my eye and I feel like I want to transfer it from the notebook to the page, I do, and then comes this very strange process which is difficult to describe in that I'll write until I get stuck or I can't go any further or I'm boring myself or whatever and then I might go to another poem. Rita Dove notebookeyewriting My childhood library was small enough not to be intimidating. And yet I felt the whole world was contained in those two rooms. I could walk any aisle and smell wisdom. Rita Dove smellchildhoodtwo Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. Rita Dove reading-poetrypowerfullanguage I never think of my audience when I write a poem. I try to write out of whatever is haunting me; in order for a poem to feel authentic, I have to feel I'm treading on very dangerous ground, which can mean that the resulting revelations may prove hurtful to other people. The time for thinking about that kind of guilt or any collective sense of responsibility, however, occurs much later in the creative process, after the poem is finished. Rita Dove responsibilitywritingmean 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 writer Rita Dove love-of-readingreadingthinking When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings. Rita Dove creationangelwings The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something Rita Dove ecstasyminutesclouds Libraries are where it all begins. Rita Dove librarianlibrary My first advice would be to read, read, read, which sounds interesting coming in a digital age, but it's so much easier to listen to a poem than it is to sit down and actually read it and to hear it in your head and that is something that every poet or aspiring poet needs to be able to do, I think to hear it in their head. Rita Dove adviceinterestingthinking Creative writing and literacy go hand and hand. Rita Dove creativewritinghands I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names? Rita Dove flamesblessingnames I'm never quite sure how the poem is going to resolve itself and that I'm always in some way surprised. I make a discovery in a poem as I write it. Rita Dove never-quitwritingdiscovery I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them. Rita Dove talentchildrenthinking The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the double strings. Rita Dove cheerfulshadowthinking I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it. Rita Dove creativitymeanbelieve Don't be so fast, you're all you've got. Rita Dove speed
