Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate.

- Rita Dove

Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more.

- Rita Dove

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

- Rita Dove

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

- Rita Dove

Sometimes a word is found so right it trembles at the slightest explanation.

- Rita Dove

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

- Rita Dove

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something tha…

- Rita Dove

Everybody who's anybody longs to be a tree.

- Rita Dove

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

- Rita Dove