Fires Quotes

“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 on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing- a sunset or an old shoe- in absolute and simple amazement.”
― Raymond Carver, Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories

“Years later,
I still wanted to give up
friends, love, starry skies,
for a house where no one
was home, no one coming back,
and all I could drink”
― Raymond Carver, Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories

“Years later,
I still wanted to give up
friends, love, starry skies,
fora house where no one
was home, no one coming back,
and all I could drink.”
― Raymond Carver, Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories

“Winter Insomnia"

The mind can’t sleep, can only lie awake and
gorge, listening to the snow gather as
for some final assault.

It wishes Chekhov were here to minister
something – three drops of valerian, a glass
of rose water – anything, it wouldn’t matter.

The mind would like to get out of here
onto the snow. It would like to run
with a pack of shaggy animals, all teeth,

under the moon, across the snow, leaving
no prints or spoor, nothing behind.
The mind is sick tonight.”
― Raymond Carver, Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories

“Some writers have a bunch of talent; I don't know any writers who are without it. But a unique and exact way of looking at things, and finding the right context for expressing that way of looking, that's something else. . . Every great or even very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications. 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 time.”
― Raymond Carver, Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories