In 1957, I decided: write or perish. James Salter More Quotes by James Salter More Quotes From James Salter To write? Because all this is going to vanish. The only thing left will be the prose and poems, the books, what is written down. 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 writingbookpast 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. James Salter realdreamwriting Love must wait; it must break one’s bones. James Salter bonesbreakwaiting 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 importantlongpast 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 pouring, this flood of encounters, struggles, dreams... James Salter struggledreamhands The book was in her lap; she had read no further. The power to change one’s life comes from a paragraph, a lone remark. The lines that penetrate us are slender, like the flukes that live in river water and enter the bodies of swimmers. She was excited, filled with strength. The polished sentences had arrived, it seemed, like so many other things, at just the right time. How can we imagine what our lives should be without the illumination of the lives of others? James Salter illuminationriversbook I'm tired of my life, my clothes, the things I say. I'm hacking away at the surface, as at some kind of gray ice, trying to break through to what is underneath or I am dead. I can feel the surface trembling—it seems ready to give but it never does. I am uninterested in current events. How can I justify this? How can I explain it? I don't want to have the same vocabulary I've always had. I want something richer, broader, more penetrating and powerful. James Salter tiredicepowerful They lay silently. She was staring at something across the room. She was making him feel uncomfortable. 'It wouldn't work. It's the attraction of opposites,' he said. We're not opposites.' I don't mean just you and me. 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 falling-in-lovemenmean He liked to read with the silence and the golden color of the whiskey as his companions. He liked food, people, talk, but reading was an inexhaustible pleasure. What the joys of music were to others, words on a page were to him. James Salter colorreadingpeople 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 sometimespeoplepast 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 falling-in-loveoppositesmen I'm a frotteur, someone who likes to rub words in his hand, to turn them around and feel them, to wonder if that really is the best word possible. James Salter likeswonderhands 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 longed for, envied, believed in, that was not life. It was what life was seeking; it was a suspension of life. But to be close to a child, for whom one spent everything, whose life was protected and nourished by one's own, to have that child beside one, at peace, was the real, the deepest, the only joy. James Salter drunkrealchildren My idea of writing is of unflinching and continual effort, somehow trying to find the right words until you reach a point where you can make no further progress and you either have something or you don’t. James Salter effortwritingideas Dresscodes are for styleless people. James Salter people I deem as heroic those who have the harder task, face it unflinchingly and live. In this world women do that. James Salter tasksfacesworld They are travelling cheaply, with that touch of indolence and occasional luxury that comes only from having real resources. They live in Levis and sunlight. Sometimes they brush their teeth in streams. James Salter luxuryteethreal What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish. James Salter impulseultimatewriting Dialogue's a method of revelation, of course. A few words of dialogue can reveal worlds about a character. James Salter revelationscharacterworld When I'm filling notebooks I'm trying to pin down what I'm really interested in and to find those details that are so hard to come by, details that I can look at and believe are right on the mark. Things which bring a novel to life. They can take a while to come. James Salter notebooktryingbelieve
