I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.
Rita DoveThere 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
Rita DoveIt 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 DoveIf our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart — and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.
Rita Dove