James Salter Quotes & Sayings

“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.”

“Your parents are the parents you know best. Your brother and sister, if you have them, are the brother and sister you know best. They may not be the ones you like the best. They may not be the most interesting, but they are the closest and probably the clearest to you.”

“I like aristocracy. I like the beauty of aristocracy. I like the hierarchical feeling.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I wasted time writing films. I don't look back on those years as lost, but it wasn't what I should have been doing.”

“If you write enough, you begin to learn to do things. But in a way, you do start from zero each time.”

“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.”

“In 1957, I decided: write or perish.”

“On the Internet, everyone is writing. There is a great flowering of writing.”