164 Quotes by Rita Dove

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.

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

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

I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.

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

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

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

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!

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years-or longer.