The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with. Rita Dove More Quotes by Rita Dove More Quotes From Rita Dove For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about the lack of respect artists got here. In my heart, I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art. Rita Dove people years art Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early. Rita Dove trying teacher children I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step. Rita Dove notebook steps firsts If I begin writing a poem that means I'm intrigued in some way by whatever it's about and that if I'm not trying to find something new and pushing the envelope in the poem I can't expect my reader to be particularly excited about it either. Rita Dove writing trying mean My inspiration comes from everywhere, just walking down the street and I never know where it's going to come from, so I keep a notebook with me at all times and the only criteria for anything making it into that notebook is if it stops me in my tracks for even an instant, if it catches my eye or my ear and I just write it down. Rita Dove notebook inspiration writing I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more. Rita Dove mean school thinking I think if you put something in a file that says "war poems" or "love poems" that you already restrict the way in which the poem might move. Rita Dove war moving thinking I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem. Rita Dove writing world thinking In fact, sometimes traveling the world is a way of not writing a poem, but it's the quality of experience. It's being able to experience something and when you begin to write about it be able to apply the tools that you need for writing. Rita Dove quality writing needs I've always felt that the poems I've written which have historical context are hopefully not just simply plucking something out of history and saying great, let's write about that. In every case what has happened is that I've become fascinated or haunted by something and couldn't shake it. Rita Dove hopefully-not historical writing At the very beginning when I begin writing a poem I try not to think of the audience or anyone at all except for trying to get at the very center of what is driving that poem. In a way it's like analyzing myself. Rita Dove writing trying thinking If the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's say. You still are so moved that you can put yourself in that position. That means that the writer has managed to go beyond the personal and touch the humanity in all of us and it's really a blast to read it because I realize how that this does hold true for the truly great poems. Rita Dove humanity mean moving I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things. Rita Dove childish-things writing children Crassly put: When I write, I am trying not to bore myself and my readers. Rita Dove reader writing trying 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 guilt two years 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 surprise-me happened surprise There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry Rita Dove library aggravation reading 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 i-realized college writing What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world! Rita Dove ironic twilight years Anyone can tell you that how you're raised as a child has a great deal to do with how you behave as an adult and whether you have complexes or whether you need to prove yourself or all that kind of stuff and yet the mother in a traditional family who has raised a child never makes it in the history books. Rita Dove mother book children
