Rita Dove

“The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.”

“Sometimes a word is found so right it settles down and stops moving.”

“What is freedom? It is a question that is not asked very often. It is a question that is not answered very often.”

“Home is the first exile.”

“You have to imagine it possible before you can see something.”

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”

“If you can't be free, be a mystery.”

“There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.”

“History is a map. It has to be re-examined and re-drawn.”

“The more you fail, the more you succeed.”

“I'm not a political poet. I'm a poet who is a political being.”

“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”

“We have to be the architects of our own futures.”

“I'm always trying to get to a danger point in color, where the dynamics are mixed up, where the colors are fighting for attention.”