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

#come #curriculum #early #get #instead

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

#began #college #entire #entire life #i

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate. ↗

— Rita Dove

#being #combination #exciting #find #i

It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded. ↗

— Rita Dove

#quantified #schools #sometimes #things #unfortunate

Libraries are where it all begins. ↗

— Rita Dove

#libraries #where

My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends. ↗

— Rita Dove

#could #ends #exciting #exciting thing #father

My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets. ↗

— Rita Dove

#butter #favorite #i #may #more

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

#before #come #community #definition #eternity

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. ↗

— Rita Dove

#country #even #found #i #immensely

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure. ↗

— Rita Dove

#end #geared #only #play #pleasure