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
Have you ever heard a good joke? If youve ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then youre already on the way to poetry. Its about using words in very precise ways and using gesture. – Rita Dove
I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age. – Rita Dove
I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing. – Rita Dove
But I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me just the right thing for a poet. Passion! He was always on the right side. He may be wrongheaded, but his heart was always on the right side. He wrote beautiful poetry. – Chinua Achebe