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?
I always knew writing a novel was a great thing. - James Salter
I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.
- James Salter
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 d… - James Salter
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 d…
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
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
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, sometime… - James Salter
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, sometime…
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 … - James Salter
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 …
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 floo… - James Salter
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 floo…
Dialogue's a method of revelation, of course. A few words of dialogue can reveal worlds about a character. - James Salter
Dialogue's a method of revelation, of course. A few words of dialogue can reveal worlds about a character.
Normally, what you’re envious of is a book, not a writer: standards, ideas, levels … almost nonexistent things. - James Salter
Normally, what you’re envious of is a book, not a writer: standards, ideas, levels … almost nonexistent things.
What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish. - James Salter
What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish.
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