James Salter Quotes

When I write I find a quiet place.

I am in total silence when I write - I don't even like the sound of the dryer going - I like the quiet.

I like the busy-ness of office life. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that I love the solitary nature of writing. What happens is that you write when you're ready.

There's nothing quite like a quiet corner in a coffee shop to gather your thoughts and begin writing.

Twice a year, I take myself off to a self-imposed 'writer's retreat', staying at a small inn or on a friend's farm, where I am all alone and do nothing other than write.

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I often do when I'm reworking, editing or when I need to relax.

I can write best in the silence and solitude of the night, when everyone has retired.

Some writers like to work in other places like coffee shops, but I can't - I'd end up people-watching. And if I were at a bookstore, I'd be reading. Sometimes I have some music on, but usually I like it quiet.

Night time really is the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is asleep.

I write best late at night, when everyone in the house has gone to bed. There's something magical about that late night silence that appeals to me.

Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.

I'm most happy when I am writing at night, because I need space and time to write.

I should be concentrating on writing pages.

When you're writing, it's a very solitary job. It's you and your word processor and a cup of tea.

I have my best ideas when I am alone.

When you're writing fiction or poetry... it really comes down to this: indifference to everything except what you're doing... A young writer could do worse than follow the advice given in those lines.

After 'Memory Keeper's Daughter,' it took me a few months to shut out the world. I really had to turn off the Internet and sort of cloister myself away from the world again and sink into that psychic space to write again.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

Unfortunately, poetry is not born in noise, in crowds, or on a bus. There have to be four walls and the certainty that the telephone will not ring. That's what writing is all about.

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

I need complete silence when I write.

To write, I think one must sit in one place and be bored. Boredom is a very good state for writers to be. Things cook away in your head when you're bored, and suddenly one day, you have a book or a germ of a book.

I'm a songwriter. I need silence to hear the melodies, so I don't fill the days with a lot of sound.