Rita Dove

“I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.”

“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.”

“It makes me furious to hear haters of all skin colors - especially Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists - deride other people because of their different beliefs and lifestyles.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.”

“Our situation is intolerable, but what's worseis to sit here and do nothing.”

“I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.”

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

“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.”

“From the time I began to read, as a child, I loved to feel their heft in my hand and the warm spot caused by their intimate weight in my lap; I loved the crisp whisper of a page turning, the musky odor of old paper and the sharp inky whiff of new pages. Leather bindings sent me into ecstasy. I even loved to gaze at a closed book and daydream about the possibilities inside.”