Quotes from Raymond Carver

Do me a favor this morning. Draw the curtain and come back to bed. Forget the coffee. We'll pretend we're in a foreign country, and in love.

Today, my heart, like the front door, stands open for the first time in months.

Hay en el alma un deseo de no pensar. De estar quieto. Emparejado con éste, un deseo de ser estricto, sí, y riguroso. Pero el alma también es una afable hija de puta no siempre de fiar.

Sai bene che non sogno. Ma ieri notte ho sognato che assistevamo a un funerale nel mare. All'inizio ero attonito. Poi pieno di rimpianti. Ma tu m'hai sfiorato un braccio e hai detto: "no, va tutto bene. Era molto vecchia, e poi lui l'ha amata tutta la vita

It's funny how we can be in love with someone one day, and the next we can easily fall in love with someone else.

He did not know what to do. Not just now, he thought, not just in this, not just about this, today and tomorrow, but every day on the earth.

life was a stone cutting and grinding...

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.

She kept talking. She told everyone. There was more to it, and she was trying to get it talked out. After a time, she quit trying.

I lifted him out. I held him. I held that half of him.

I don't fire up the prose. I just tell it straight and don't fool around with it.

Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it.

Grief Woke up early this morning and from my bed looked far across the Strait to see a small boat moving through the choppy water, a single running light on. Remembered my friend who used to shout his dead wife's name from hilltops around Perugia. Who set a plate for her at his simple table long after she was gone. And opened the windows so she could have fresh air. Such display I found embarrassing. So did his other friends. I couldn't see it. Not until this morning.

I wish I could be like everybody else in this neighborhood--your basic, normal, unaccomplished person-and go up to my bedroom, and lie down, and sleep. It's going to be a big day today, and I'd like to be ready for it. I wish I could sleep and wake up and find everything in my life different. Not necessarily just the big things,.... but things clearly within my power.

He was going somewhere, he knew that. And if it was the wrong direction, sooner or later he'd find it out.

That's right,' Mel said. 'Some vassal would come along and spear the bastard in the name of love. Or whatever the fuck it was they fought over in those days.' Same things we fight over these days,' Terri said. Laura said, 'Nothing's changed.

Iba a contaros algo -empezó Mel-. Bueno, iba a demostrar algo. Veréis: sucedió hace unos meses, pero sigue sucediendo en este mismo instante, y es algo que debería hacer que nos avergoncemos cuando hablamos como si supiéramos de qué hablamos cuando hablamos de amor.

after a minute, you continue writing. she screams again. you wonder how long this can go on.

He understood that it only took one lunatic and a torch to bring everything to ruin.

Years later, I still wanted to give up friends, love, starry skies, fora house where no one was home, no one coming back, and all I could drink.

He seemed full of some goodness she didn't understand

Il vuoto è l'inizio di tutte le cose.

But here is the thing. When he gets on me, I suddenly feel I am fat. I feel am terrifically fat, so fat that Rudy is a tiny thing and hardly there at all.

Such beauty that for a minute death and ambition, even love, doesn't enter into this.