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I've always felt that the poems I've written which have historical context are hopefully not just simply plucking something out of history and saying great, let's write about that. In every case what has happened is that I've become fascinated or haunted by something and couldn't shake it.

Rita Dove

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Rita Dove
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: August 28
Essayist
Poet
Professor
Writer
Akron
Ohio
Rita Frances Dove
Something
Happened
Hopefully
Always
History
Historical
Plucking
Write
Case
Haunted
Felt
Couldn
Shake
Become
Cases
Shakes
Great
Simply
Context
Writing
Saying
Poems
Every
Written
Fascinated

More quotes by Rita Dove

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Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.
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Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.
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The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.
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If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together.
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At the very beginning when I begin writing a poem I try not to think of the audience or anyone at all except for trying to get at the very center of what is driving that poem. In a way it's like analyzing myself.
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Sometimes a word is found so right it trembles at the slightest explanation.
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There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.
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We should always do something that makes us feel like a child again. Keep learning, no matter what it is.
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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
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If I begin writing a poem that means I'm intrigued in some way by whatever it's about and that if I'm not trying to find something new and pushing the envelope in the poem I can't expect my reader to be particularly excited about it either.
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I think that when a poem can move readers across generations and across its specific class or race then it becomes truly classic.
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If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.
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I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person.
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My inspiration comes from everywhere, just walking down the street and I never know where it's going to come from, so I keep a notebook with me at all times and the only criteria for anything making it into that notebook is if it stops me in my tracks for even an instant, if it catches my eye or my ear and I just write it down.
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Don't be so fast, you're all you've got.
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If you can't be free, be a mystery.
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I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.
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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.
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For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about the lack of respect artists got here. In my heart, I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art.
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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.
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