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
basis fiction interested life reason respect seems suppose
Most of my stories, if not all of them, have some basis in real life. That's the kind of fiction I'm most interested in. I suppose that's one reason I don't have much respect for fiction that seems to be game playing.
except follow given poetry worse writer
When you're writing fiction or poetry... it really comes down to this: indifference to everything except what you're doing... A young writer could do worse than follow the advice given in those lines.
marriage writers
I think marriage is one of those things that writers draw on, one of those emotional reservoirs that go way back.
long chance enough
there isn't enough of anything as long as we live. But at intervals a sweetness appears and, given a chance prevails.
worry anxiety fidgeting
But I can hardly sit still. I keep fidgeting, crossing one leg and then the other. I feel like I could throw off sparks, or break a window--maybe rearrange all the furniture.
talking ashamed feels
It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love.
funny-things happens
There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had.
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.
different wells bottom
In short, everything about his life was different for him at the bottom of that well.
stories done
I've done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.
goes-on
Get in, get out. Don't linger. Go on.
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.
symphony remember
Remember Haydn's 104 symphonies. Not all of them were great. But there were 104 of them.
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.