Quotessence
Home / Authors / Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllWritingKnowsMorningIfsLittlesRaymond CarverWorldLoveStoriesFeelsWindowFirstsHeartMinutesPoetryTalkingThinkingTryingWayFiction

Famous Raymond Carver Quotes

“I've crossed some kind of invisible line. I feel as if I've come to a place I never thought I'd have to come to. And I don't know how I got here. It's a strange place. It's a place where a little harmless dreaming and then some sleepy, early-morning talk has led me into considerations of death and annihilation.”

IfsKnowsFeelsKindLittlesDreamLostLinesMorningKnow HowStrangeInvisibleConsiderationInsomniaAnnihilationSleepyEarly MorningStrange Places
Book:Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories
Create image

“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.”

WayLittlesDarkWatchesBreakMorningPiecesNiceMinutesTenMouthsDaughterWinterGlassesBlowClockKitchenMy DaughterSugarBurnedPieSpicesSteamForksOvensWatch MeSlitsCinnamonBreak OffDark GlassesSugar And Spice
Book:All of Us: The Collected Poems
Create image

“If we're lucky, writer and reader alike, we'll finish the last line or two of a short story and then just sit for a minute, quietly. Ideally, we'll ponder what we've just written or read; maybe our hearts or intellects will have been moved off the peg just a little from where they were before. Our body temperature will have gone up, or down, by a degree. Then, breathing evenly and steadily once more, we'll collect ourselves, writers and readers alike, get up, "created of warm blood and nerves" as a Chekhov character puts it, and go on to the next thing: Life. Always life.”

IfsWritingHeartLittlesHas BeensTwoCharacterStoriesBodyLastsNextLinesGoneWrittenBloodMinutesGoes OnReaderLuckyDegreesMovedWarmIntellectGet UpBreathingNervesShort StoryTemperaturePonderingChekhovPegBody Temperature
Book:Where I'm Calling From
Create image