fortwentynineyears asked: i bought some Carver and it's great and helped my writing and you are now one of my favorite people for helping me find it thank you go you
Oh, you’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
fortwentynineyears asked: hi, i just saw that thing on raymond carver and because i'm a writer i looked it up and it looks promising, is there anything you could possibly recommend?
Hi! My two favourites are: Will you Please Be Quiet Please and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - both collections of short stories. Hope this is helpful!
- PARIS REVIEW: Are your characters trying to do what matters?
- RAYMOND CARVER: I think they are trying. But trying and succeeding are two different matters. In some lives, people always succeed; and I think it's grand when that happens. In other lives, people don't succeed at what they try to do, at the things they want most to do, the large or small things that support the life. These lives are, of course, valid to write about, the lives of the people who don't succeed. Most of my own experience, direct or indirect, has to do with the latter situation. I think most of my characters would like their actions to count for something. But at the same time they've reached the point—as so many people do—that they know it isn't so. It doesn't add up any longer. The things you once thought important or even worth dying for aren't worth a nickel now. It's their lives they've become uncomfortable with, lives they see breaking down. They'd like to set things right, but they can't. And usually they do know it, I think, and after that they just do the best they can.
- The Paris Review, The Art of Fiction, No. 76: Raymond Carver
