J.D. Salinger Quotes

God, I wish you could have been there.

Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first one who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior.

The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding

I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.

He said I was unequipped to meet life because I had no sense of humor.

If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet.

She's quite intelligent, in my stupidity.

Did you see more glass?

They didn't act like people and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good.

Then again you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.'

Life is a gift horse in my opinion.

I suspect that money is a far greater distraction for the artist than hunger.

If Death stepped miraculously through the glass and came in after you, in all probability you just got up and went along with him, ferociously but quietly.

You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac — with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.

They love their reasons for loving us almost as much as they love us, and most of the time more. It's not so good, that way.

... even the most sublimely accomplished non-stop talker can't consistently please.

The cards are stacked (quite properly, I imagine) against all professional aesthetes, and no doubt we all deserve the dark, wordy, academic deaths we all sooner or later die.

He was the tallest, thinnest, weariest boy I had ever seen in my life. He was brilliant. He had gorgeous brown eyes, and he had only two suits. He was completely unhappy, and I didn't know why.

There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.

She was there, and she was the whole city, and that’s that.

You can't exist in this world with such strong likes and dislikes.

If you're not in the mood, you can't do that stuff right.

She said she knew she was able to fly because when she came down she always had dust on her fingers from touching the light bulbs.

I live alone (but catless, I'd like everybody to know).

The sentence im reading is terrific.

That's the terrible part. I swear to God I'm a madman.

That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think.

Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row.

I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work.

For joy, apparently, it was all Franny could do to hold the phone, even with both hands.

Get your dirty stinking moron knees off my chest.

But what I mean is, lots of time you don’t know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn’t interest you most. I mean you can’t help it sometimes.

I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite. Don't you see that? I'm afraid I will compete - that's what scares me.

It was the last game of the year and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn't win.

You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.

Boy, did he depress me! I don't mean he was a bad guy- he wasn't. But you don't have to be bad guy to depress somebody- you can be a good guy and do it.

It’s history. It’s poetry.

It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it.

The Great Gatsby' [...] was my 'Tom Sawyer' when I was twelve [....]

If you're going to say the Jesus Prayer, at least say it to Jesus, and not to St. Francis and Seymour and Heidi's grandfather all wrapped up in one.

I know. I'm very hard to talk to. I realize that.

It's nice when somebody tells you about their uncle. Especially when they start out telling you about their father's farm and then all of a sudden get more interested in their uncle.

There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady.

After I go out this door, I may only exist in the minds of all my acquaintances…I may be an orange peel.

And the old horror of being a professional writer, and the usual stench of words that goes with it, is begining to drive me out of my seat. (Buddy)

I just never felt so fantastically rocky in my entire life.

Do it for the fat lady!

My god, there's absolutely nothing tenth-rate about you, and yet you're up to your neck at this minute in tenth-rate thinking.

This is a people shooting hat," I said. "I shoot people in this hat.