JAMES SALTER

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

I love to write about Nabokov and also to think about him. I love his attitude that he is incomparable, his lofty judgments and general scorn of other writers - not all of them, of course.

A name, of course is like a piece of clothing, isn't it? It gives you an impression right away.

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

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

Written pages are something that can be returned to, reclaimed, and when they are marvelous, never lose their power.

I would say that I am a jaded man beyond most expectations, but, like everyone else, I still have hope.

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

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

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

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.

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

Life passes into pages if it passes into anything.

I don't hold myself dictated to by what everyone is saying, by the tabloids or popular opinion. I don't like bourgeois values. I say you find your own way to live.

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.

In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

In a certain sense, a writer is an exile, an outsider, always reporting on things, and it is part of his life to keep on the move. Travel is natural.

There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection.

There are writers for whom names mean nothing; everybody could be called John and Elizabeth, and the writing would be just as good. A name, of course, is like a piece of clothing, isn't it? It gives you an impression right away.

I've made an effort to nurture the feminine in myself. I don't mean overtly, but in terms of response to things.

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.

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.

There came a time when I felt I was not going to be satisfied with life unless I could write.

I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.

I think you can be taught to write. You can't be taught to be a good writer. For that, you have to bring something to it, yourself, something that can't be given to you.