Raymond Carver Quotes

Write a lot and don't think about publishing - just the writing.

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.

I don't listen to music when I write - I find it distracting.

No, I have to really focus, especially when I'm writing because I wanna be good at it.

When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a difficult time balancing between my real world and the artificial world.

I didn't start really focusing on writing until I was 24.

I've tried writing with music on, but I find it distracting.

I never listen to music when I write. It's too much of a distraction.

The space where writing happens is a unique space that's hard to define, and when you're kicked out of it because you're travelling or distracted, it seems so elusive and hard to defend because you yourself doubt whether it existed.

I don't want to blame anybody, but I just want to tell you that the process of writing is antisocial, so on the days that you have something really important to write, go from lying down directly to your notepad or your computer. Do not talk.

Always staying focused is something that's been very tough for me. I'm still working on it.

Every story I write is different. Some are hard. Some aren't. 'Chronicle' was tremendously easy. I have a hard time comparing my process on different things, but I will say this: The more you write, the better you get at it. That's one of the few things that's markedly true.

I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span.

When you're writing, you're in a totally different zone... I can start a difficult poem and look up at the clock and see to my astonishment that three hours have passed.

It's all discipline and schedule for me. I mean, it's very easy to get distracted by the real world and things that intrude constantly, and it takes dedication to live totally in your head and be tuned out.

I am in total silence when I write - I don't even like the sound of the dryer going - I like the quiet.

All experience helps when you write.

I do want to work on writing, because writing's a skill. Writing is something that you can train yourself to know better. To know yourself better. And it's intimidating as hell.

I really love writing, but I am very easily distracted: my two cats fighting, a rainbow, a TV show... I have to use every trick to keep myself at the computer.

Music inspires me and puts me in the right mood, but to actually listen to it when I write - I find it gets in the way.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

I try to stay focused on my life and do try not to be brought into the Hollywood fantasy.

Successful writers say you should never work from a desk with a view, and the view I have from this one is a huge distraction. There's a garden bursting with fresh vegetation, and just beyond the high wall at the end of it, I can see the sign of the local pub across the road. Distractions, eh? I'm so easily led.

Writing requires the concentration of the writer, demands that nothing else be done except that.

When I'm writing, I'm in an isolation chamber. I'm not one to think about that outside world stuff when I'm writing.