J.D. Salinger Quotes

“That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”

Girls Holden

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“She was around ten minutes late, as a matter of fact. I didn't give a damn, though. All that crap they have in cartoons in the Saturday Evening Post and all, showing guys on street corners looking sore as hell because their dates are late - that's bunk. If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody.”

Girls Lateness

Author:J.D. Salinger

“Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their legs not crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls, girls that looked like they'd be bitches if you knew them... You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. Guys that get sore and childish as hell if you beat them at golf, or even just some stupid game like ping-pong. Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring.”

Humor Girls Guys Holden Caulfield

Book:Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Source: Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

“I never did find out what the hell was the matter. Some girls you practically never find out what's the matter.”

Psychology Relationship Girls Teenagers

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”

Love Girls

Author:J.D. Salinger

“Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. - Holden Caulfield”

Humor Girls

Author:J.D. Salinger

“You take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks he's a real hot-shot, and they're always asking you to do them a big favor. Just because they're crazy about themself, they think you're crazy about them, too, and that you're just dying to do them a favor. It's sort of funny, in a way.”

Funny Crazy Dying Think Handsome Favor Them You Re Themself

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I’m not too sure what the name of the song was that he was playing when I came in, but whatever it was, he was really stinking it up. He was putting all these dumb, show-offy ripples in the high notes, and a lot of other very tricky stuff that gives me a pain in the ass. You should’ve heard the crowd, though, when he was ﬁnished. You would’ve puked. They went mad. They were exactly the same morons that laugh like hyenas in the movies at stuff that isn’t funny. I swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes though I was terriﬁc, I’d hate it. I wouldn’t even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I’d play it in the goddam closet. Anyway, when he was ﬁnished, and everybody was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy, besides being a terriﬁc piano player. It was very phony—I mean him being such a big snob and all. In a funny way, though, I felt sort of sorry for him when he was ﬁnished. I don’t even think he knows any more when he’s playing right or not. It isn’t all his fault. I partly blame all those dopes that clap their heads off—they’d foul up anybody, if you gave them a chance.”

Fame Stupidity

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I felt so damn happy all of sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there.”

Truth Happiness Wish Knowing Protection Feeling Why Niceness Phoebe Carousel

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up. It was funny. It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell- I don't know why exactly.”

Funny Girl Knowing Sad Know Salesman Nobody Prostitute Store Regular

Author:J.D. Salinger

“What a school. You were always watching somebody cut their damn toenails or squeeze their pimples or something.”

Humor School

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I think that once you have a fair idea where you want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in school.”

School

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“It seems to me indisputably true that a good many people, the wide world over, of varying ages, cultures, natural endowments, respond with a special impetus, a zing, even, in some cases, to artists and poets who as well as having a reputation for producing great or fine art have something garishly Wrong with them as persons: a spectacular flaw in character or citizenship, a construably romantic affliction or addiction - extreme self-centeredness, marital infidelity, stone-deafness, stone-blindness, a terrible thirst, a mortally bad cough, a soft spot for prostitues, a partiality for grand-scale adultery or incest, a certified or uncertified weakness for opium or sodomy, and so on, God have mercy on the lonely bastards.”

People Artist Artists J D Salinger

Book:Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

Source: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

“Ciò che distingue l'uomo immaturo è che vuole morire nobilmente per una causa, mentre ciò che distingue l'uomo maturo è che vuole umilmente vivere per essa".”

Inspirational Attitude

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“...if you don't know by this time what kind of skull you want when you're dead, and what you have to do to earn it... then what's the use of talking?”

Inspirational Attitude Skulls

Author:J.D. Salinger

“Someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from yo. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement, and it isn't education. It is history. It's poetry”

Inspirational Attitude

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I'm not trying to tell you," he said "that only educated men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with--which, unfortunately, is rarely the case--tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are MEREly brilliant and creative.”

Wisdom Education Creativity

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Our foyer has a funny smell that doesn't smell like anyplace else. I don't know what the hell it is. It isn't cauliflower and it isn't perfume—I don't know what the hell it is—but you always know you're home.”

Home Smell

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs--if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't. You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do. They really do.”

Truth

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“These intellectual guys don't like to have an intellectual conversation with you unless they're running the whole thing.”

Whole Running Intellectual You Like Thing Guys Dont Unless They Re

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“People always think something's all true.”

True

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“The trouble with me is, I always have to read that stuff by myself. If an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every minute.”

Reading Acting Worry Trouble Listening Actor Every Minute Phoniness

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“He laughed and the others laughed with him, except Babe, who resented slightly that what he felt so deeply could be reduced to a humor.”

Empathy

Book:Last Day of the Last Furlough

Source: Last Day of the Last Furlough

“I wasn't sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead.”

Loneliness Depression Lonely Angst Classic Literature The Catcher In The Rye

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“People always think something's all true. I don't give a damn, except that I get bored when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am, I really do. But people never notice. People never notice anything.”

Growing Up

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn't even think. That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think.”

Depression Lonely Angst Classic Literature The Catcher In The Rye

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or anything. Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street. I thought I’d just go down, down, down, and nobody’d ever see me again. Boy, did it scare me. You can’t imagine. I started sweating like a bastard – my whole shirt and underwear and everything. Then I started doing something else. Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, “Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Please, Allie.” And then when I’d reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I’d thank him. Then it would start all over again as soon as I got to the next corner. But I kept going and all. I was sort of afraid to stop, I think – I don’t remember, to tell you the truth. I know I didn’t stop till I was way up in the Sixties, past the zoo and all. Then I sat down on this bench. I could hardly get my breath, and I was still sweating like a bastard. I sat there, I guess, for about an hour.”

Grief Sad Depression

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I don't want you to get the idea she was a goddamn icicle or something, just because we never necked or horsed around much. She wasn't. I held hands with her all the time, for instance. That doesn't sound like much, I realize, but she was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddamn hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid they'd bore you or something. Jane was different. [...] You never even worried with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.”

Romance Affection Gentleness Holding Hands P 79

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I am a dash man and not a miler, and it is probable that I will never write a novel. So far the novels of this war have had too much of the strength, maturity and craftsmanship critics are looking for, and too little of the glorious imperfections which teeter and fall off the best minds. The men who have been in this war deserve some sort of trembling melody rendered without embarrassment or regret. I’ll watch for that book.”

Writing War Novel Wwii Short Stories Imperfections

Author:J.D. Salinger

“What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.”

Grief Leaving Graduation Closure Ending Closure Quotes

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“She threw her arms around him and kissed him. It was a station-platform kiss—spontaneous enough to begin with, but rather inhibited in the follow-through, and with somewhat of a forehead-bumping aspect.”

Kiss Station Franny

Book:franny and zooey

Source: franny and zooey

“The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. I got up closer so I could hear what he was singing. He was singing that song, 'If a body catch a body coming through the rye.' He had a pretty little voice, too. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him, and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing 'If a body catch a body coming through the rye.' It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed any more.”

Children Feelings Kids Time Voice Depression Robert Burns Comin Thro The Rye

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“God bless ladies with costly, tasteful clothes and touching, dirty fingernails that champion gifted, foreign poets and decorate the library in beautiful, melancholy fashion! My God, this universe is nothing to snicker at!”

Love Books Woman

Book:Hapworth 16, 1924

Source: Hapworth 16, 1924

“When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”

Death Cemetery Holden Funeral Rites

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“As much as anything else, it was a stare, not so paradoxically, of a privacy-lover who, once his privacy has been invaded, doesn't quite approve when the invader just gets up and leaves, one-two-three, like that.”

Solitude Privacy Introvert Salinger Zooey

Book:franny and zooey

Source: franny and zooey

“Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”

Death Flowers

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“When the weather's nice, my parents go out quite frequently and stick a bunch of flowers on old Allie's grave. I went with them a couple of times, but I cut it out. In the first place, I don't enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery. Surrounded by dead guys and tombstones and all. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but twice—twice—we were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner—everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it. I know it's only his body and all that's in the cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn't stand it anyway. I just wished he wasn't there.”

Death Holden

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out. Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn near broke my crazy neck.”

Goodbye Holden

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and they're pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody's be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat this time. Or the kid that was your partner in line the last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way—I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it.”

Life Interesting Holden

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I gave her a good look. She didn’t look like any dope to me. She looked like she might have a pretty damn good idea what a bastard she was the mother of. But you can’t always tell--with somebody’s mother, I mean. Mothers are all slightly insane.”

Mothers

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“She looked like she might have a pretty damn good idea what bastard she was the mother of. But you can’t always tell - with somebody’s mother, I mean. Mothers are all slightly insane.”

Humorous Mothers Adolescents

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I'm not trying to tell you," he said, "that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with — which, unfortunately, is rarely the case — tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. And — most important — nine times out of ten they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker.”

Wisdom Education Knowledge Humility Intellectual

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“You ought to go to a boy's school sometime. Try it sometime," I said. "It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques.”

Life Truth Sex Money Honest High School Phony

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”

Happiness

Book:Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

Source: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

“All I can say is, don't see it if you don't want to puke all over yourself.”

Humor Funny Humour

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Oh, God, if I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I think people are plotting to make me happy.”

Funny Happiness Happy Paranoia

Book:Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

Source: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

“I still think that, in a way, I can't get past half my childhood dogmas.”

Psychology Childhood

Book:The Complete Uncollected Stories

Source: The Complete Uncollected Stories

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something.”

Excited Like It Something I About Somebody Gets

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“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.”

Interest Talking You Start Something Most About Doesnt

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“If Death - who was out there all the time, possibly sitting on the hood - 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. Chances were, you could take your cigar with you, if it was a clear Havana.”

Death Car Cigar Havana J D Salinger Buddy Glass

Book:Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

Source: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

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