James Salter Quotes

I didn't know I was looking for anything until I saw you.

You've got to let accidents and strange things happen - let it work, so it's got an organic sort of quality ... By trying to remove yourself you can see some fantastic things sometimes.

There are no accidents, only encounters with destiny!

A book, like a person, has its fortunes with one; is lucky or unlucky in the precise moment of its falling in our way, and often by some happy accident counts with us for something more than its independent value.

You must know that in any moment a decision you make can change the course of your life forever, the very next person who you stand behind in line or sit next to on an aeroplane, the very next phone call you make or receive, the very next movie you see or book you read or page you turn could be the one single thing that causes the floodgates to open, and all of the things that you've been waiting for to fall into place.

That I should turn up at the precise moment was one of those extraordinarily lucky breaks which we all need at some time or other during this life, but don't always get.

I became an actor by accident.

Things are bound to begin happening if you've got your wits about you. You create the lucky accidents.

Slightest accidents open up new worlds.

Love at first sight? I absolutely believe in it! You've got to keep the faith. Who doesn't like the idea that you could see someone tomorrow and she could be the love of your life? It's very romantic.

If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he entitled to happiness?

Always a chancer, always lucky, he'd fall into a river and come out dry, with fish in his pockets.

The nature of the work is to prepare for a good accident .

You know, sometimes I wonder what things would be like if I just ... met you one day. Like normal people do. If I just walked by you on some street one sunny morning and thought you were cute, stopped, shook your hand, and said, "Hi, I'm Daniel.

Potentiality knocks on the door of my heart. [On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning ]

Above all, mine is a love story. Unlike most love stories, this one involves chance, gravity, a dash of head trauma. It began with a coin toss. The coin came up tails. I was heads. Had it gone my way, there might not be a story at all. Just a chapter, or a sentence in a book whose greater theme had yet to be determined. Maybe this chapter would've had the faintest whisper of love about it. But maybe not. Sometimes, a girl needs to lose.

Photography's history is bound to the mistake, to the accident.

I like things that don't look like you're in control. It's like life itself. You just learn how to benefit from accidents and chances that you take.

I never look for a photograph. The photograph finds me and says, I'm here! and I say, Yes, I see you. I hear you.

You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.

All painting is an accident. But it's also not an accident, because one must select what part of the accident one chooses to preserve.

The odds of not meeting in this life are so great that every meeting is like a miracle. It's a wonder that we don't make love to every single person we meet.

It will happen when you're not looking for it. Love likes to take you by surprise.

Maybe all wondrous books appear in our lives the way Milo’s tollbooth appears, an inexplicable gift, cast up by some curious chance that comes to feel, after we have finished and fallen in love with the book, like the workings of a secret purpose. Of all the enchantments of beloved books the most mysterious-the most phantasmal-is the way they always seem to come our way precisely when we need them.