James Salter Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• To write? Because all this is going to vanish. The only thing left will be the prose and poems, the books, what is written down. 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

  Book, Writing, Past

• 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.

  James Salter

  Dream, Real, Writing

  James Salter (2016). “The Art of Fiction”, p.64, University of Virginia Press

• 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

  Writing, Ideas, Effort

  "James Salter: The Greatest Writer You've Never Read" by Alex Bilmes, www.esquire.com. June 21, 2015.

• What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish.

  James Salter

  Writing, Impulse, Ultimate

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

  James Salter

  Writing, Internet, Flowering

  "James Salter: the forgotten hero of American literature". Interview with Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. May 11, 2013.

• The whole joy of writing comes from the opportunity to go over it and make it good, one way or another.

  James Salter

  Writing, Opportunity, Joy

• I like to write about certain things that if they are not written about are not going to exist.

  James Salter

  Writing, Certain, Written

  "The Last Book" by Nick Paumgarten, www.newyorker.com. April 15, 2013.

• But that isn't my life. I have said many times I don't want to be considered one who once flew fighters. That's not who I am. I devoted the subsequent 50 years - more - to writing.

  James Salter

  Writing, Who I Am, Years

  "James Salter: The Greatest Writer You've Never Read" by Alex Bilmes, www.esquire.com. June 21, 2015.

• Sometimes I write with a particular person in mind. I think it's fair to say that I write for a perceptive reader. You have to get it. If you don't get it the first time you may not understand. If you like repetition, analysis, explanation, you probably won't like my books.

  James Salter

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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

  James Salter

  Writing, Views, Trying

• A writer writes a book. People read it. You don't know what they're reading, really. You read a review and think, "That is so inaccurate. You can't have been reading my book with any kind of attention, because that is all wrong, that's even the wrong name you're including there." But these reviewers have been diminished in importance, the work is so little respected. If you're reviewed by a real critic, by James Wood or Louis Menand, then you get something that is informed, interesting, and highly articulate. But the average review doesn't have that kind of depth anymore.

  James Salter

  Real, Reading, Book

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• 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.

  James Salter

  Writing, Ideas, People

  "James Salter Interview: The Most Famous Writer You’ve Never Heard Of". Interview with Michael Stewart, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 13, 2013.

• You write for glory. You play for glory. There's an ambition to excel, isn't there, to be a star? To score more, to do more, even when it's a team sport. So I think striving for glory is a natural subject for a writer. Seeking fame.

  James Salter

  Sports, Team, Writing

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

  James Salter

  Writing, Decided

• I'd given up everything to be a writer, and if I didn't then go on to do that - to write - then I didn't know what would happen to me.

  James Salter

  Writing

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.

  James Salter

  Writing, Novel, Great Things

  "James Salter: the forgotten hero of American literature". Interview With Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. May 11, 2013.

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

  James Salter

  Zero, Writing, Way

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