Rita Dove

If you cannot be free, be a mystery. ↗

— Rita Dove

#freedom

There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints. ↗

— Rita Dove

#complaining #complaints #instead #life #something

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. ↗

— Rita Dove

#distilled #language #most #most powerful #powerful

When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings. ↗

— Rita Dove

#being #brushed #something #touched #wings

All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself. ↗

— Rita Dove

#back #became #childhood #come #first

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

#away #child #childish #did #i

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit. ↗

— Rita Dove

#complexities #human #human spirit #means #really

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

#cheerful #comes #curious #double #i

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet. ↗

— Rita Dove

#capable #i #i can #larger #laureate

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

#before #evidence #existed #front #imagine