“...at a luncheon, I sat next to a green-eyed young woman, a poet, who declared loftily that you learned nothing from books, it was life you learned from, passion, experience. The host, a fine old man in seventies, heard her… — James Salter Copy Share Image
It seems to me that literature is giving way a little bit to the immediacy of other diversions, other forms of entertainment. What will it be in fifty years? I don't know. Will there be printed books? Probably, but I'm not sure. There's always going to be literature, though. I believe that. I think literature has a way of getting… — James Salter Copy Share
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 Copy Share Image
I write in longhand. I am accustomed to that proximity, that feel of writing. Then I sit down and type. — James Salter Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 world is prepared to recognize him. Meteoric, like a comet—those are the phrases we apply, and it’s true, it is a kind of burning. It makes them highly visible, and at the same time it consumes… — James Salter Copy Share
Normally, what you’re envious of is a book, not a writer: standards, ideas, levels … almost nonexistent things. — James Salter Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Lots of scripts are written and not made, even scripts that people want to make. — James Salter Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“One should not believe too easily in a life which can easily vanish.” — James Salter Copy Share Image
“Life is separated by scars, like the rings in the inside of a tree.” — James Salter Copy Share Image
