One is seduced and battered in turn. The result is presumably wisdom. Wisdom! We are clinging to life like lizards. 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 landscapes, persons, beasts, books, rooms, meteorological conditions, fruits. In fact, I insist on it. A letter is like a poem, it leaps into life and shows very clearly the marks, perhaps I should say thumbprints, of an unwilling or unready composer.
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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