You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hi, welcome to Bookworm.

This is Michael Silverblatt. Today my guest is Sam Halpert, who's written, not written, he's put together, an

anthology of interviews with people who knew Raymond Carver under the title, When We Talk

About Raymond Carver.

It's published by Gibbs Smith, and will be of interest to anyone who admired Carver. It's published by Gibbs Smith and will be of interest to anyone who admired

Carver or wants to hear how writers talk about other writers. Now this is really a labor of love,

Sam. How did this start? Well, well, it goes back always, but I had always been an admirer of Carver's work.

And when I first came across his collection, When You Please Be Quiet, Please, back in 76, I was just taken with it.

I felt it was written,

especially for me,

you know, that sort of feeling.

Just hit home right from the start.

Then I made it my business, of course,

to read everything Carver wrote previous to the collection,

and then I couldn't wait

for each new story to come out out and I just jumped on it.

And then around, I hadn't done any writing at the time. I'd just been an avid reader.

And I came across in 86 I saw an ad in a literary review where it said that Ray Carver

...