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
responsibility writing stories
My circumstances of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction necessitated the short story form.
complaining
Don’t complain, don’t explain.
imagination temptation littles
A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.
soul trying way
All of us, all of us, all of us trying to save our immortal souls, some ways seemingly more round about and mysterious than others. We are having a good time here. But hope all will be revealed soon.
despair littles said
Isak Dinesen said that she wrote a little every day, without hope and without despair. I like that.
spiritual real school
Mel thought real love was nothing less than spiritual love. He'd said he'd spent five years in a seminary before quitting to go to medical school. He said he still looked back on those years in the seminary as the most important years of his life.
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.
daughter morning nice
She serves me a piece of it a few minutes out of the oven. A little steam rises from the slits on top. Sugar and spice - cinnamon - burned into the crust. But she's wearing these dark glasses in the kitchen at ten o'clock in the morning - everything nice - as she watches me break off a piece, bring it to my mouth, and blow on it. My daughter's kitchen, in winter. I fork the pie in and tell myself to stay out of it. She says she loves him. No way could it be worse.
morning mistake lying
Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read. Fought against it for a minute. Then looked out the window at the rain. And gave over. Put myself entirely in the keep of this rainy morning. Would I live my life over again? Make the same unforgivable mistakes? Yes, given half a chance. Yes.
memories mean thinking
All this, all of this love we're talking about, it would just be a memory. Maybe not even a memory. Am I wrong? Am I way off base? Because I want you to set me straight if you think I'm wrong. I want to know. I mean, I don't know anything, and I'm the first one to admit it.
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.
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.
validation firsts creation
There's literary creation and literary business. When I first got something accepted, it gave my life a validation it didn't otherwise have.
morning moon blue
The smooth stones you pick up and examine under the moon's light have been made blue from the sea. Next morning when you pull them from your trouser pocket, they are still blue.