James Salter quotes - page 2

On the Internet, everyone is writing. There is a great flowering of writing. (James Salter)

If you write enough, you begin to learn to do things. But in a way, you do start from zero each time.

James Salter

I write down portions, maybe fragments, and perhaps an imperfect view of what I'm hoping to write. Out of that, I keep trying to find exactly what I want.

James Salter

We were moderate, we will never know what it is to spill out our lives.

James Salter

I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be.

James Salter

Certain things I remember exactly as they were. They are merely discolored a bit by time, like coins in the pocket of a forgotten suit. Most of the details, though, have long since been transformed or rearranged to bring others of them forward. Some, in fact, are obviously counterfeit; they are no less important. One alters the past to form the future.

James Salter

What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish.

James Salter

I deem as heroic those who have the harder task, face it unflinchingly and live. In this world women do that.

James Salter

Sometimes you are aware when your great moments are happening, and sometimes they rise from the past. Perhaps it's the same with people.

James Salter

Hope but not enthusiasm is the proper state for the writer.

James Salter

Love must wait; it must break one's bones. (James Salter)

He nestles himself flat in the meeting of her buttocks. An excruciating douche.

James Salter

As his prick goes into her, he discovers the world. He knows the source of numbers, the path of the stars.

James Salter

There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection.

James Salter

A film writer is very much like a party girl. While you're good-looking and still unlined, the possibilities seem endless. But your appeal doesn't last long and you're quickly discarded.

James Salter

Every nation feels itself to be superior, but in America it's a jaunty feeling, and in some cases a rather ominous one among the super-patriots.

James Salter

My ideal is a book that is perfect on every page, that gives you tremendous aesthetic joy on every page. I suppose I am trying to write such a book.

James Salter

You have your brains, but it's energy and desire that make you write a book.

James Salter

I have said many times I don't want to be considered one who once flew fighters. That's not who I am. I devoted the subsequent 50 years - more - to writing.

James Salter

Man was very fortunate to have invented the book. Without it, the past would completely vanish, and we would be left with nothing, we would be naked on earth.

James Salter

You can't be admitted to the ranks of writers of importance unless you have sales. (James Salter)

Most writers can write three times as many books as I have and still live a life.

James Salter

As a writer, you aren't anybody until you become somebody.

James Salter

Although I've made notes for things and even written synopses sitting in trains or on park benches, for the complete composition of things I need absolute solitude, preferably an empty house.

James Salter

It's possible of course, especially when you're young, to read a book and take it to your heart. And you don't need to speak to anybody about it - it's so important to you: You have found it.

James Salter

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