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5da7016 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 the earth. poetry Raymond Carver
1f85264 I loved you so much once. I did. More than anything in the whole wide world. Imagine that. What a laugh that is now. Can you believe it? We were so intimate once upon a time I can't believe it now. The memory of being that intimate with somebody. We were so intimate I could puke. I can't imagine ever being that intimate with somebody else. I haven't been. past love intimacy memory Raymond Carver
fb7a294 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. sleep death life insomnia place dreaming lost Raymond Carver
4450ec0 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. life hyper excitement wild fireworks crazy Raymond Carver
7a943cd Honey, no offense, but sometimes I think I could shoot you and watch you kick. violence love offense shoot kick sweet joke intimacy Raymond Carver
7046199 Dreams, you know, are what you wake up from. the-bridle Raymond Carver
5733087 You've got to work with your mistakes until they look intended. Understand? Raymond Carver
26dfa5d There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that? What happened to that love? What happened to it, is what I'd like to know. I wish someone could tell me. hate love falling-out love-to-hate divorce questioning Raymond Carver
adcd233 there isn't enough of anything as long as we live. But at intervals a sweetness appears and, given a chance prevails. poetry Raymond Carver
cdc8ae6 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." Raymond Carver
f739db3 This is awful. I don't know what's going to happen to me or to anyone else in the world. gazebo pessimism Raymond Carver
6658984 He wondered if she wondered if he were watching her. Raymond Carver
62131b6 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. Raymond Carver
d9505b8 So early it's still almost dark out. I'm near the window with coffee, and the usual early morning stuff that passes for thought. When I see the boy and his friend walking up the road to deliver the newspaper. They wear caps and sweaters, and one boy has a bag over his shoulder. They are so happy they aren't saying anything, these boys. I think if they could, they would take each other's arm. It's early in the morning, and they are doing thi.. poetry life Raymond Carver
8feca8c and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love. Raymond Carver
b317087 There is no answer. It's okay. But even if it wasn't okay, what am I supposed to do? Raymond Carver
429f24d But he stays by the window, remembering that life. They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come, while everything else--the cold and where he'd go in it--was outside, for a while anyway. Raymond Carver
0813168 And certain things around us will change, become easier or harder, one thing or the other, but nothing will ever really be any different. I believe that. We have made our decisions, our lives have been set in motion, and they will go on and on until they stop. But if that is true, then what? I mean, what if you believe that, but you keep it covered up, until one day something happens that should change something, but then you see nothing is.. Raymond Carver
dff7370 I hate tricks. At the first sign of a trick or gimmick in a piece of fiction, a cheap trick or even an elaborate trick, I tend to look for cover. Tricks are ultimately boring, and I get bored easily, which may go along with my not having much of an attention span. But extremely clever chi-chi writing, or just plain tomfoolery writing, puts me to sleep. Writers don't need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows.. Raymond Carver
cb80c5e There is in the soul a desire for not thinking. For being still. Coupled with this a desire to be strict, yes, and rigorous. But the soul is also a smooth son of a bitch, not always trustworthy. And I forgot that. Raymond Carver
0ae9b8e Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it. Raymond Carver
a263b18 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. Raymond Carver
a1f2ce6 At least I want to get up early one more morning, before sunrise. Before the birds, even. I want to throw cold water on my face and be at my work table when the sky lightens and smoke begins to rise from the chimneys of the other houses. I want to see the waves break on this rocky beach, not just hear them break as I did in my sleep. I want to see again the ships that pass through the Strait from every seafaring country in the world - old, .. poetry Raymond Carver
f72b305 Happiness. It comes on poetry Raymond Carver
2b8bc4e My heart is broken," she goes. "It's turned to a piece of stone. I'm no good. That's what's as bad as anything, that I'm no good anymore." Raymond Carver
456f882 Drinking's funny. When I look back on it, all of our important decisions have been figured out when we were drinking. Even when we talked about having to cut back on drinking, we'd be sitting at the kitchen table or out at the picnic table with a six-pack or whiskey. Raymond Carver
32a560a There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had. life misery Raymond Carver
40c7d83 My lungs are thick with the smoke of your absence. Raymond Carver
85b2223 The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places. Raymond Carver
21bc25a I'm a heart surgeon, sure, but I'm just a mechanic. I go in and I fuck around and I fix things. Shit. work heart love mechanic fix swearing Raymond Carver
112c8ba Then I said something. I said, Suppose, just suppose, nothing had ever happened. Suppose this was for the first time. Just suppose. It doesn't hurt to suppose. Say none of the other had ever happened. You know what I mean? Then what? I said. life suppose Raymond Carver
f39bda1 A man can go along obeying all the rules and then it don't matter a damn anymore. Raymond Carver
b2c6a06 You see, this happened a few months ago, but it's still going on right now, and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love. time talk shame Raymond Carver
22055b7 I'm always learning something. Learning never ends. Raymond Carver
92999dd 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." Raymond Carver
9253092 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 rea.. writing thought short-stories Raymond Carver
d300dc1 Ralph also took some classes in philosophy and literature and felt himself on the brink of some kind of huge discovery about himself. But it never came. Raymond Carver
4486d4e Well, the husband was very depressed for the longest while. Even after he found out that his wife was going to pull through, he was still very depressed. Not about the accident, though. I mean, the accident was one thing, but it wasn't everything. I'd get up to his mouth-hole, you know, and he'd say no, it wasn't the accident exactly but it was because he couldn't see her through his eye-holes. He said that was what was making him feel bad... marriage Raymond Carver
fa28bc7 It's akin to style, what I'm talking about, but it isn't style alone. It is the writer's particular and unmistakable signature on everything he writes. It is his world and no other. This is one of the things that distinguishes one writer from another. Not talent. There's plenty of that around. But a writer who has some special way of looking at things and who gives artistic expression to that way of looking: that writer may be around for a .. Raymond Carver
b88da62 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. Raymond Carver
d4343de The light was draining out of the room, going back through the window where it had come from. Raymond Carver
ff1b79a They talked on into the early morning, the high, pale cast of light in the windows, and they did not think of leaving. pain grief loss light pale windows morning leaving talk Raymond Carver
f22aada I'm moving to Nevada. Either there or kill myself. suicide Raymond Carver
dd54b77 We knew our days were numbered. We had fouled up our lives and we were getting ready for a shake-up. life gazebo Raymond Carver