American - Poet | August 28, 1952 -
I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!
Rita Dove
BlueDreamOutPoetSomethingBeen
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.
LifeAmazingMeThoughtSurprise
People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.
PeopleMeThinkCountrySometimes
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.
ChildrenPoetryLiteratureYouEarly
It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.
FindPoetBeingCombinationExciting
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.
SuccessImaginationGoWithoutArts
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.
ImaginationImpossibleYouPossible
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.
LoveReadingThinkFindWriterRead
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.
ThinkYouMatterNeverWriteGoing
What writing does is to reveal.
WritingRevealDoes
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!
DeathWorldPageTwilightBringHe
I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.
AgeTimePoetrySexLensRace
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Rita Dove quotes