"If I wasn't writing? I'd be an art dealer."
James Salter
James Salter is the author of Sport and a Pastime, Light Years and Last Night. Solo Faces is reprinted by Penguin this month.
Where are you right now?
In a comfortable apartment in the 14th in Paris - my daughter's apartment, she's a publisher here.
Where do you write?
At home in one room or another.
How do you write?
Longhand and then typewritten. Then typewritten again.
What keeps you writing?
No alternative.
Who do you write for?
An imagined good reader, probably a woman.
Do you discuss your work with anyone?
Very rarely - make that almost never. I've done it, but it's never worked.
How do you know if your work is good?
After a certain period of time, perhaps a few years. By then the real quality, if any, appears.
Do you have any unwritten characters in mind?
Of course.
Which book do you wish you'd written?
Bleak House or My First Fee (I. Babel).
What is your literary guilty pleasure?
Claim to have none.
Which writer made you want to write?
Kipling.
Who's the most exciting author writing today?
I would say W G Sebald although he was killed in a car crash a few years ago.
If you weren't writing you'd be...?
Art dealer.
What next?
A novel I believe will measure up, due 8/09.
Thursday, 6 November, 2008
In How I write
- Sadie Jones
- Amy Bloom
- John Burnside
- Geoff Dyer
- David Malouf
- Janice Galloway
- Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio
- Alaa Al Aswany
- Nick Laird
- T. C. Boyle
- Nicolas Fargues
- Zoe Heller
- Shalom Auslander
- James Salter
- Ali Smith
- James Frey
- Linn Ullmann
- Julian Barnes
- Joe Dunthorne
- Richard Milward
Buy books
Solo Faces (Penguin Modern Classics)
Last Night: Stories
Sport and a Pastime
Light Years (Penguin Modern Classics)
Books are purchased through Amazon UK. Link opens in a new window.
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