Quotes from Raymond Carver

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on this earth.

There are significant moments in everyone's day that can make literature. That's what you ought to write about.

I'm just a baker. I don't claim to be anything else. Maybe once, maybe years ago, I was a different kind of human being. I've forgotten, I don't know for sure.

It was only late at night, on the nights he was not with Carol, that he wished for an end to the love he still had for Eileen and felt tormented as to why all of this had happened.

Le parole possono essere precise anche al punto da apparire piatte, l'importante è che siano cariche di significato; se usate bene, possono toccare tutte le note.

My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn't like what she saw. I shrugged.

A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best for writing fiction.

I dettagli sono il sangue della narrativa.

In addition to being in love, we like each other and enjoy one another's company. She's easy to be with.

We had a Victrola and some records, Doctor. We'd play the Victrola every night and listen to the records and dance there in the living room. We'd do that every night. Sometimes it'd be snowing outside and the temperature down below zero. The temperature really drops on you up there in January or February. But we'd listen to the records and dance in our stocking feet in the living room until we'd gone through all the records.

All I know about this fine, sweaty life, my own or anyone else's, is that in a little while I'll rise up and leave this astonishing place that gives shelter to dead people. This graveyard. And go. Walking first on one rail and then the other.

years later, I still wanted to give up friend, love, starry skies, for a house where no one was home, no one coming back, and all I could drink.

wore a three-piece blue suit, a striped tie, and ivory cufflinks. His gray hair was combed along the sides of his head, and he looked as if he had just come from a concert.

I'm not a frivolous man, nor am I, in my opinion, a serious man. It's my belief a man has to be a little of both these days. I believe, too, in the value of ahrd work-the harder the better. A man who isn't working has got too much time on his hands, too much time to dwell on himself and his problems.

But for some reason—who knows why we do what we do?—his drinking picks up.

You'll be surprised to see what can collect in a mattress over the months, over the years. Every day, every night of our lives, we're leaving little bits of ourselves, flakes of this and that, behind. Where do they go, these bits and pieces of ourselves?

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.

Creo que en el amor no somos más que principiantes. Decimos

He says he can't understand these people. "People who sail through life like the world owes them a living.

Tuhaf bir ÅŸekilde her ÅŸey olabilecekken, her ÅŸeyin zaten olduÄŸunu fark ettik.

La letteratura, poi, ha questo di bello: che puoi riacciuffarla in un momento qualunque del tuo percorso, che non scade mai, che non abbandona mai davvero le librerie.

And did you get what you wanted from this life,...?

Però ha certi occhi, disse Bonnie. Che hanno gli occhi? Sono tristi. Gli occhi più tristi che abbia mai visto in un uomo.

Mia moglie ha l'abitudine di raccontarmi i suoi sogni quando si sveglia. Io le porto il caffè e un bicchiere di succo di frutta e mi siedo accanto al letto mentre lei si sveglia e si scosta i capelli dalla faccia. Ha la solita espressione di quando ci si sveglia, ma anche lo sguardo di chi torna da qualche parte.