Raymond Carver Quotes

Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know.

I'm an emotional guy, so I don't have to worry about a girl trying to get me to open up.

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that arrogance is one of my flaws.

I've always felt like I had a personal relationship with fans. I'm not afraid to be emotional or vulnerable or humble.

About love, don't be a silent partner. And be gentle with your anger.

If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.

I wasn't really testing it on myself as much as I was learning from other people about what it meant to live and love with your whole heart, and then thinking, oh my god, I'm not doing that.

I always feel slightly sorry to be the voice of whatever I'm experiencing.

When an intelligent man reaches the point of inviting self-explanation and offers surrendering the key to his heart, he is assuredly riding a drunken horse.

If you can't take a good kicking, you shouldn't parade how much luckier you are than other people.

The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble.

I feel people think I'm almost like a robot - like an android... I just don't really get portrayed as someone who has feelings or who is sympathetic... like a self-absorbed ice queen.

At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.

I hope it's enabling me to deal with another human being who's more important to me than I am.

I'm a romantic, and we romantics are more sensitive to the way people feel. We love more, and we hurt more. When we're hurt, we hurt for a long time.

Real men know how to listen, and real men know how to be honest.

Love is very dangerous if you just have love and don't have the ability to be lovable.

I have so many questions about love. How do you win at it? Especially if you're in a relationship with an impossible person? What if you believe in someone who's completely untrustworthy, who at their core can't even believe in themselves?

I think invariably when you are dealing with relationships, the films really center on that, and the plot is really born out of that. That's the most core part of a relationship: intimacy, I think, whether it's expressed or not.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Lasting love has to be built on mutual regard and respect. It is about seeing the other person. I am very interested in relationships and, when I watch couples, sometimes I can sense a blindness has set in. They have stopped seeing each other. It is not easy to see another person.

A certain amount of anger doesn't make us less empathetic, less humane, less loving. It just makes us real.

In romance, we feel the need to zoom in and expound on our partner's foibles in intimate detail; in friendship, we tend to do the opposite, avoiding confrontation through fear, lethargy or both.

It's no secret that I love to talk, but the real secret is I love to listen, too.

I like characters who have blind spots and are full of themselves, but there also needs to be vulnerability.