James Salter Quotes

I'm a storyteller; that's what exploration really is all about. Going to places where others haven't been and returning to tell a story they haven't heard before.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

I look for stories everywhere.

I just love stories, and I love movies, learning and seeing the world. Growing up in Iowa, it was like, you wanna see the world? Movies can help you do that.

Traveling, talking to people, and rehearsing, I'm always finding new ideas. If I stay in one place, maybe I won't have so many ideas.

I have been very fortunate to be a part of tours with other artists that have exposed me to new places that I've never been before. Once you discover something beautiful, you just want to keep coming back.

When I travel, I feel more like a nomad than a tourist.

I'm interested in stories. I think I'm a bit of a pathfinder.

Writing allows me the time to travel and see the world, which is what I always wanted to do. I'd really like to have been Sir Richard Francis Burton, but it's the wrong century.

I had this desire to see the world. I couldn't see any of it, but I saw it in my imagination, and that's why I always read books, and I could go to Mars or Middle Earth or the Hyborian age.

Taking time to sit back and watch and think about what you've seen is important. Traveling did a great deal to me. I found that when I travel and just sit in the corner and watch, a million ideas come to me.

Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.

I've always been inspired by small details that make me wander. My mother would ask me, 'What are you looking at so intensely?' I would answer, 'Everything and nothing.' She really supported my wanderings, called me Marco Polo.

For me, travelling and drawing the world, experiencing as much as possible first hand, has been very important. Making notes, drawing and writing on the move, became second nature.

I'm ever curious about the world. I'm driven to go out and find new things to write about. Having a vivid imagination is also a plus.

I am a voyager - and the voyage cannot mean that I stay at home.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

I love to see new things, and I love to learn. I always learn so much when I travel - that's the best thing.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

I like marketplaces. I like train stations; I like being in trains. I like airports. I like walking down the street with a pen in my hand, writing, writing, writing.

I'm an explorer.

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

I don't like to travel. Yet all my books seem to involve a journey.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.