DEAD FLIES ON THE SILLS OF sunny windows, weeds along the…

It seems to me that literature is giving way a little bit to the immediacy of other diversions, other forms of entertainment. What will…

— James Salter

Women fall in love when they get to know you. Men are just the opposite. When they finally know you they're ready to leave

— James Salter

Not necessarily narrow so much as impatient, intense.

— James Salter

I write in longhand. I am accustomed to that proximity, that feel of writing. Then I sit down and type.

— James Salter

A writer writes a book. People read it. You don't know what they're reading, really. You read a review and think, "That is so…

— James Salter

“Strauss’s, for instance, which begins in the heavens. The artist doesn’t ascend to glory, he appears in it, he already has it and the…

— James Salter

Normally, what you’re envious of is a book, not a writer: standards, ideas, levels … almost nonexistent things.

— James Salter

Sometimes I write with a particular person in mind. I think it's fair to say that I write for a perceptive reader. You have…

— James Salter

Lots of scripts are written and not made, even scripts that people want to make.

— James Salter

I'd given up everything to be a writer, and if I didn't then go on to do that - to write - then I…

— James Salter

“One should not believe too easily in a life which can easily vanish.”

— James Salter

“Life is separated by scars, like the rings in the inside of a tree.”

— James Salter

“Dean is still asleep. His clothes are strewn about. The shutters are closed. He never dreams. He’s like a dead musician, like a spent…

— James Salter

The dreams are the skeleton of all reality.

— James Salter

There came a time when I felt I was not going to be satisfied with life unless I could write.

— James Salter