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James Salter Quotes

Total quotes: 10
“As Rilke says, there are no classes for beginners in life, the most difficult thing is always asked of one right away.”
— James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel(FSG Classics)
Tagged: Life
“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.”
— James Salter, Dusk and Other Stories
Tagged: Life, Writing
“I recognized in him a clever strain of assurance which has nothing to imitate, which springs forth in tact. It feeds on its own reflection.”
— James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (FSG Classics)
Tagged: Life
“The more clearly one sees this world, the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist.”
— James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (FSG Classics)
Tagged: Life
“It was among the knowledgeable others that one hoped to be talked about and admired...The years would bow to you; you would be remembered, your name like a thoroughbred's, a horse that ran and won.”
— James Salter, James Salter, a Writer’s Writer
Tagged: Life
“Women fall in love when they get to know you. Men are just the opposite. When they finally know you, they're ready to leave.”
— James Salter, Dusk and Other Stories
Tagged: Love, Breakups, Leaving
“Don't be too impatient. Just be ready. You know Napoleon's maxim: every soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack.”
— James Salter, Cassada
Tagged: strategy
“She is so wet by the time he has the pillows under her gleaming stomach that he goes right into her in one long, delicious move. They begin slowly. When he is close to coming he pulls his prick out and lets it cool. Then he starts again, guiding it with one hand, feeding it in like line. She begins to roll her hips, to cry out. It’s like ministering to a lunatic. Finally he takes it out again. As he waits, tranquil, deliberate, his eye keeps falling on lubricants—her face cream, bottles in the armoire. They distract him. Their presence seems frightening, like evidence. They begin once more and this time do not stop until she cries out and he feels himself come in long, trembling runs, the head of his prick touching bone, it seems. They lie exhausted, side by side, as if just having beached a great boat.”
— James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (FSG Classics)
Tagged: Sex, Love, orgasm
“At five o'clock on Sunday, the elevator door opened, and out stepped a tall, blazered, gray-trousered man whom I instantly recognized, and a white-haired woman in a handsome Rodier suit. It was the Nabokovs. They came to the table. I was a little nervous. I was not an accomplished journalist; I knew Nabokov did not ad-lib; I was unable to bring a tape recorder because of that, and I would be unable to take notes, I knew, for the same reason. I had as my only source of strength the–I am certain–fabrication of Truman Capote that he had spent a night drinking and talking with Marlon Brando in Tokyo and the next day had written down the entire conversation exactly. It appeared in the New Yorker. I thought if Capote could do it for an entire night while drinking, I could certainly do thirty abstemious minutes with Nabokov. I summoned all my powers and said, I'm going to concentrate on everything he says, listen, and not think of being clever or what I should say; I simply want to listen to him. It turn out to be forty-five minutes. We were getting along quite well, and finally he said, Shall we have another Julep? He was referring whimsically to scotch and soda. But I was afraid that one more drink might begin to obliterate the text. So I excused myself. I had the distinct impression we could have gone on and had dinner, but I was afraid to. I apologized for having taken up so much time and immediately went to the railroad station where I wrote down everything I remember. It wasn't in order, of course, but it was four or five pages, and from it I constructed an interview. It was all fairly exact, I must say. I missed the train, but I cherish the memory.”
— James Salter
Tagged: Life
“They stand beneath the shower. He nestles himself flat in the meeting of her buttocks. An excruciating douche. He feels unable to move, but he begins to soap her breasts which glisten like seals beneath the flow of water. He scrubs her back. Between the shoulder blades the skin is broken out in small, red points. He goes over them with the cloth. It’s good for them, he tells her. Aureate light is reflected from the ceiling. He has a hard-on he is sure will never disappear.”
— James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (FSG Classics)
Tagged: Sex, Love
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