Category: Rita Dove

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
-Rita Dove

“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

“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