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J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger Quotes

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Famous J. D. Salinger Quotes

“It's no fun to be yellow. Maybe I'm not all yellow. I don't know. I think maybe I'm just partly yellow and partly the type that doesn't give much of a damn if they lose their gloves. One of my troubles is, I never care too much when I lose something - it used to drive mother crazy when I was a kid. Some guys spend days looking for something they've lost. I never seem to have anything that if I lost it I'd care too much. Maybe that's why I'm partly yellow. It's no excuse, though. It really isn't. What you should be is not yellow at all.”

IfsThinkingKnowsGivingShouldSeemsCareKidsUsedMotherGuyLostFunLosesToo MuchTroubleCrazyTypeExcuseDamnYellowGlovesNo ExcusesCaring Too Much
Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
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“If you can't, or won't, think of Seymour, then you go right ahead and call in some ignorant psychoanalyst. You just do that. You just call in some analyst who's experienced in adjusting people to the joys of television, and Life magazine every Wednesday, and European travel, and the H-bomb, and Presidential elections, and the front page of the Times, and God knows what else that's gloriously normal.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsJoyFrontsTelevisionNormalPagesElectionIgnorantMagazinesPresidentialBombsGod KnowsAnalystsWednesdayAdjustingPresidential Election
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“Keep me up till five because all your stars are out, and for no other reason…Oh dare to do it Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you. Good night. I’m feeling very much over-excited now, and a little dramatic, but I think I’d give almost anything on earth to see you writing a something, an anything, a poem, a tree, that was really and truly after your own heart.”

ThinkingGivingWritingHeartLittlesReasonFeelingsEarthNightStarsFiveTreeDareExcitedDramaticBetrayBuddyDeservingGood NightCraftsmanTrust Your Heart
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“This fall I think you're riding for—it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.”

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Author:J. D. Salinger
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“Don't you think I have sense enough to worry about my motives for saying the prayer? That's exactly what's bothering me so. Just because I'm choosy about what I want - in this case, enlightenment or peace, instead or money or prestige or game or any of those things, doesn't mean I'm not as egotistical and self-seeking as everybody else. If anything, I'm more so!”

IfsThinkingWantMeanSelfEnoughGamesPrayerCasesWorryEnlightenmentSeekingBotherMotivePrestigeEgotisticalChoosy
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go? I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away.”

IfsThinkingHomeWould BeGuyWonderNew YorkSouthParksDucksFrozenTruckFlewZoosIcyHoldenCentral ParkLagoons
Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
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“I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes.”

IfsThinkingSometimesFacesGirlFunStuffWaterOughtHorseCarefulOver ItBe CarefulLike HerHolden Caulfield
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“I submit that Zooey's face was close to being a wholly beautiful face. As such, it was of course vulnerable to the same variety of glibly undaunted and usually specious evaluations that any legitimate art object is. I think it just remains to be said that any one of a hundred everyday menaces — a car accident, a head cold, a lie before breakfast — could have disfigured or coarsened his bounteous good looks in a day or a second.”

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Author:J. D. Salinger
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“I don’t think it would have all got me quite so down if just once in a while—just once in a while—there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time! But there never is! You never even hear any hints dropped on a campus that wisdom is supposed to be the goal of knowledge. You hardly ever even hear the word 'wisdom' mentioned!”

IfsThinkingShouldLittlesGoalWords Of WisdomWasteSupposed To BeWasting TimeDisgustingPoliteImplicationsHintsCampus
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“She was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddam 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. We'd get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we wouldn't quit till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.”

IfsThinkingDifferentHandsBigsMovingDiesGirlDealsPositionQuittingWorriedBoresTerrificBig DealJaneKeep MovingHolding HandsBores You
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“Take most people, they are crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, they are always talking about have many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that is even newer. I do not even like old cars. . . . I'd rather have a horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.”

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Author:J. D. Salinger
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