All James Salter Quotes
- Then it was intoxicating. The smooth takeoff, and the free feeling of having the world drop away. Soon after leaving the ground, they were crossing… Adventure
- You lived and died alone, especially in fighters. Fighters. Somehow, despite everything, that word had not become sterile. You slipped into the hollow cockpit and… Alone
- Why is it so difficult to assemble those things that really matter in life and to dwell among them only? I am referring to certain… Among
- Of them all, it was the true love. Of them all, it was the best. That other sumptuous love which made one drunk, which one… All
- Age doesn't arrive slowly, it comes in a rush. One day nothing has changed, a week later, everything has. A week may be too long… Age
- There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real. Any
- 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.… Alters
- It is always an accident that saves us. It is someone we have never seen. Accident
- There is no complete life. There are only fragments. We are born to have nothing, to have it pour through our hands. And yet, this… Born
- I am afraid of him, of all men who are successful in love. Afraid
- But knowledge does not protect one. Life is contemptuous of knowledge; it forces it to sit in the anterooms, to wait outside. Passion, energy, lies:… Admire
- We were moderate, we will never know what it is to spill out our lives... Funny
- It's just that it's hard to believe in greatness... Believe
- ONE OF THE LAST GREAT REALIZATIONS is that life will not be what you dreamed. Dreamed
- Children are our crop, our fields, our earth. They are birds let loose into darkness. They are errors renewed. Still, they are the only source… Accept
- You’re so American. You believe everything is possible, everything will come. I know differently. American
- Love must wait; it must break one’s bones. Bones
- Not necessarily narrow so much as impatient, intense. Impatient
- Events need their invitation, dissolutions their start. Events
- Dresscodes are for styleless people. Funny
- I always knew writing a novel was a great thing. Always Knew
- Life passes into pages if it passes into anything, Funny
- Hope but not enthusiasm is the proper state for the writer. Enthusiasm
- The summer has ended. The garden withers. The mornings become chill. I am thirty, I am thirty-four -the years turn dry as leaves. Chill
- A light snow, a snow so faint and small-bodied that it seems nothing more than a manifestation of the cold. Bodied