You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you cant imagine something that has never existed before, its impossible. – Rita Dove
The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and Ive seen ecstasy or something. – Rita Dove
My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends. – Rita Dove
I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry. – Rita Dove
The theoretician believes in logic and believes that he despises dreams, intuition, and poetry. He does not recognize that these three fairies have only disguised themselves in order to dazzle him…. He does not know that he owes his greatest discoveries to them. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wartime Writings 1939-1944, translated from French by