James Salter
James Salter
James Arnold Horowitz, better known as James Salter, his pen name and later-adopted legal name, was an American novelist and short-story writer. Originally a career officer and pilot in the United States Air Force, he resigned from the military in 1957 following the successful publication of his first novel, The Hunters...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 June 1925
CountryUnited States of America
weather meals life-is
Life is weather. Life is meals,
philosophy real philosophical
I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be. It's wrong to say "everybody," but in literature I see it all the time - preoccupation with it, philosophical preoccupation, in fact. That's a principle element of literature and philosophy, often cited as the main element, the only real element. I say give it up.
want topics certain
I'd say the biggest relationship is the repetition of certain themes. I don't want to say "topics," but certain points of interest.
world this-life this-world
It's tremendous: this world, this life. Take it while you have it.
beauty
There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection.
time
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.
hard initially written
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.
aesthetic gives ideal suppose tremendous trying
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.
death
The death of kings can be recited, but not of one's child.
fortunate invented left man naked
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.
coming curtain faces hearing life looking meeting open question seeing situation
There is no situation like the open road, and seeing things completely afresh. I'm used to traveling. It's not a question of meeting or seeing new faces particularly, or hearing new stories, but of looking at life in a different way. It's the curtain coming up on another act.
chance languages
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.
affect break interest less
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.
course gives piece
A name, of course is like a piece of clothing, isn't it? It gives you an impression right away.