CITAS

On reading, writing and rewriting

Raymond Carver

It's been a continual series of starting-overs for me.



...the best art has its reference points in real life.



I'm not a "born" poet. I don't know if I'm a "born" anything...



That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places...



Anyone can express himself, or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate, yes?



The first and second quotations are from "Raymond Carver Speaking", by Robert Pope and Lisa McElhinny. Conducted spring 1982. The third is from "Raymond Carver", by Mona Simpson and Lewis Buzbee. Conducted winter 1983. Conversations With Raymond Carver, edited by Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L Stull, University Press Of Mississippi, 1990. Copyright © 1990 by the University Press Of Mississippi.


The fourth Raymond Carver quotation is from "On Writing". The fifth is from "On 'For Tess'". Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction And Prose, The Harvill Press, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by Tess Gallagher.