Hope but not enthusiasm is the proper state for the writer. James Salter More Quotes by James Salter More Quotes From James Salter We were moderate, we will never know what it is to spill out our lives. James Salter spillsour-livesknows 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: these are what life admires. Still, anything can be endured if all humanity is watching. The martyrs prove it. We live in the attention of others. We turn to it as flowers to the sun. James Salter passionflowerlying You are perfectly entitled to invent your life and to claim that it's true. James Salter entitledclaims I write down portions, maybe fragments, and perhaps an imperfect view of what Im hoping to write. Out of that, I keep trying to find exactly what I want. James Salter viewswritingtrying The dreams are the skeleton of all reality. James Salter skeletonsdreamreality Happiness is often at its most intense when it is based on inequality. James Salter inequalityintense I like aristocracy. I like the beauty of aristocracy. I like the hierarchical feeling. James Salter aristocracyfeelings But that isn't my life. 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 who-i-amwritingyears You can write about other people and their ideas and life without having lived it, but even your perception of that is going to be colored by what you know and what you experience. And this is undeniable. James Salter writingpeopleideas If you write enough, you begin to learn to do things. But in a way, you do start from zero each time. James Salter zerowritingway On the Internet, everyone is writing. There is a great flowering of writing. James Salter floweringinternetwriting I like men who have known the best and the worst, whose life has been anything but a smooth trip. Storms have battered them, they have lain, sometimes for months on end, becalmed. There is a residue even if they fail. It has not been all tinkling; there have been grand chords. James Salter stormmonthsmen Solitude. One knows instinctively it has benefits that must be more deeply satisfying than those of other conditions, but still it is difficult. James Salter difficultbenefitssolitude 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 partygirllong Life is weather. Life is meals. James Salter mealslife-isweather The normal economic system works itself. James Salter economic-systemseconomicnormal Normally, what you’re envious of is a book, not a writer: standards, ideas, levels … almost nonexistent things. James Salter levelsbookideas The myriad past, it enters us and disappears. Except that within it, somewhere, like diamonds, exist the fragments that refuse to be consumed. Sifting through, if one dares, and collecting them, one discovers the true design. James Salter siftingdesignpast I'd say the biggest relationship is the repetition of certain themes. I don't want to say "topics," but certain points of interest. James Salter topicscertainwant I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be. It's wrong to say "everybody," but in literature I see it all the time - preoccupation with it, philosophical preoccupation, in fact. That's a principle element of literature and philosophy, often cited as the main element, the only real element. I say give it up. James Salter philosophicalrealphilosophy
