32 James Salter Quotes for You to Enjoy

James Salter

American Novelist

Born: Jun 10, 1925

Died: Jun 19, 2015

Book Life Me Time Writing You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

I find the most difficult part of writing is to get it down initially because what you have written is usually so terrible that it's disheartening; you don't want to go on. That's what I think is hard - the discouragement that comes from seeing what you have done. James Salter

It's great to listen to men talk about sports or fights or war or even hunting sometimes, but the presence of the other, the presence of art and beauty, which crude masculinity seems to discount, is essential. Real civilization and real manhood seem to me to include those. James Salter

War Art Great Me Sports Sometimes Men Beauty Other Those Hunting About Seem Seems Civilization Crude Masculinity Talk Real Discount Listen Essential Manhood Which Fights Even Include Presence

I always knew writing a novel was a great thing. James Salter

Great Writing Knew Great Thing Always Novel Thing

West Pointers tend to be rigorously honest - more than necessary, in my view. James Salter

More Tend West Than View Necessary Honest

I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be. James Salter

Death Fear Everybody Everybody Else Else Way Seems Obsessed

I've always said that I felt women are more heroic. James Salter

Women Heroic More Felt Said Always Women Are

Like books you will never have the chance to read, there are languages you do not know, and you're not going to get a chance to learn, so you'll never really know what was written, only the approximation. James Salter

You Will Books Approximation Only Never Written Like Know Learn Read Get Going Really Languages Chance

The publishers, as I remember at the very beginning of my career, wrote letters with their fountain pens. A letter is different from a phone call or fax. It's a different kind of intimacy. That pervaded the entire business of writing and publishing. James Salter

I write down portions, maybe fragments, and perhaps an imperfect view of what I'm hoping to write. Out of that, I keep trying to find exactly what I want. James Salter

Down Fragments Out Find Exactly Hoping Exactly What Imperfect Write Perhaps Trying Maybe Want View Keep Portions

My first book was published without any editorial advice. Nobody said, 'You might do this or that,' or 'Why don't we see more of this.' I merely took the book and published it. James Salter

You Book First Advice Took See More Merely Nobody Without Said Editorial Any Might Why Published

Happiness is often at its most intense when it is based on inequality. James Salter

Happiness Most Inequality Intense Often Based

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

You Writing Words Progress Further Right Words Find Somehow Something Point Idea Reach Until Make Effort Trying Where Either Right

Certain people can keep a word tune, so to speak, and certain people cannot. And, above all, certain people can tell a story, and other people can't. They don't hear that point where something else has to come. James Salter

People Speak Word Other Else Tell Above Something Something Else Point Come Hear Where Tune Cannot Story Certain Keep

Although I've made notes for things and even written synopses sitting in trains or on park benches, for the complete composition of things I need absolute solitude, preferably an empty house. James Salter

Solitude Made Bench Complete Composition Park Absolute Written House Although Empty Trains Sitting Notes Even Things Need

The writers of books are companions in one's life and, as such, are often more interesting than other companions. James Salter

Life Other Books More Writers Than Often Interesting Companions

As a writer, you aren't anybody until you become somebody. James Salter

You Somebody Become Writer Until Anybody

I knew what my father, more than anything else, wanted me to do. Seventeen, vain, and spoiled by poems, I prepared to enter a remote West Point. I would succeed there, it was hoped, as he had. James Salter

Me Father Vain Else Seventeen Enter Hoped Would Poems More More Than Anything Point Had He Spoiled Knew Remote West West Point Than Wanted Anything Anything Else Succeed Prepared

You have your brains, but it's energy and desire that make you write a book. James Salter

You Book Energy Write Make Brains Your Desire

The deepest instinct is to want to do something enduring, something worthwhile, and to be engaged by that, whether one achieves it or not. James Salter

Worthwhile Something Instinct Want Achieves Enduring Whether Engaged Deepest

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