Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr.was an American short-story writer and poet. Carver contributed to the revitalization of the American short story in literature during the 1980s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth25 May 1938
CityClatskanie, OR
CountryUnited States of America
should-have stories wonderful
When a reader finishes a wonderful story and lays it aside, he should have to pause for a minute and collect himself.
real fiction world
The fiction Im most interested in has lines of reference to the real world.
stories done
I've done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.
people yards fronts
I’d like to go out in the front yard and shout something. “None of this is worth it!” That’s what I’d like people to hear.
despair littles said
Isak Dinesen said that she wrote a little every day, without hope and without despair. I like that.
ready shakes our-lives
We knew our days were numbered. We had fouled up our lives and we were getting ready for a shake-up.
long dirt like-you
Something’s died in me,” she goes. “It took a long time for it to do it, but it’s dead. You’ve killed something, just like you’d took an axe to it. Everything is dirt now.
writing thinking littles
I think a little menace is fine to have in a story. For one thing, it's good for the circulation.
liars becoming thieves
It's strange. You never start out life with the intention of becoming a bankrupt or an alcoholic or a cheat and a thief. Or a liar.
return determined trekking
I dressed and went for a walk - determined not to return until I took in what Nature had to offer.
jobs effort good-job
Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it.
funny-things happens
There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had.
mistake looks
You've got to work with your mistakes until they look intended. Understand?
memories believe laughing
I loved you so much once. I did. More than anything in the whole wide world. Imagine that. What a laugh that is now. Can you believe it? We were so intimate once upon a time I can't believe it now. The memory of being that intimate with somebody. We were so intimate I could puke. I can't imagine ever being that intimate with somebody else. I haven't been.