164 Quotes by Rita Dove

Listen how they say your name. If they can't say that right, there's no way they're going to know how to treat you proper, neither.

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

The First Book: Go ahead, it won't bite. Well... maybe a little. More a nip, like. A tingle. It's pleasurable, really. You see, it keeps on opening. You may fall in. Sure, it's hard to get started; remember learning to use knife and fork? Dig in: you'll never reach bottom. It's not like it's the end of the world -- just the world as you think you know it.

In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things

If you can't be free, be a mystery.

To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.

I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

I change jobs like drinking water ... And as I grow accustomed to the new flavor of a drink I regard as delicious, yes, vital, something fades, life balks. So I break camp; I shed skins.

What's a word, a talisman, to hold against the world?