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
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
The notion that anything can be invented wholly and that these invented things are classified as ‘fiction’ and that other writing, presumably not made up, is called ‘nonfiction’ strikes me as a very arbitrary separation of things. – James Salter
I’ve made an effort to nurture the feminine in myself. I don’t mean overtly, but in terms of response to things. – 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
I’ve known the anxiety of being completely lost, flying at night. It can be extreme. You’re travelling at close to five hundred miles an hour, and every minute that goes by takes you further into being lost unless you get help from ground radar somewhere or somehow figure out the error. – James Salter
Every nation feels itself to be superior, but in America it’s a jaunty feeling, and in some cases a rather ominous one among the super-patriots. – James Salter
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
I spent the night on a sliver of rock high up on the east face of Long’s Peak, climbing with Tom Frost, and slept at the icy feet of the Dru, listening to the lightning crack above me and the thunder roll down. I only did it to write about it. I would never go up on the Grotto Wall for fun. – James Salter
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
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
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
If you write enough, you begin to learn to do things. But in a way, you do start from zero each time. – James Salter
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. – James Salter
I would say that I am a jaded man beyond most expectations, but, like everyone else, I still have hope. – James Salter
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. – 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
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
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. – James Salter
The writing is really important in books that affect me. I read for the writing. The story is usually of less interest to me. It’s the words that break your heart. – James Salter
The writing workshops and programs that are everywhere have encouraged writing. And if that produces more writing, it’s also producing more readers of an elevated level. So all in all, a good thing. – James Salter
My ideal is a book that is perfect on every page, that gives you tremendous aesthetic joy on every page. I suppose I am trying to write such a book. – James Salter
