Best J D Salinger Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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

“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

“That’s what I liked about those nuns. You could tell, for one thing, that they never went anywhere swanky for lunch. It mad me so damn sad when I thought about it, their never going anywhere swanky for lunch or anything. I knew it wasn’t too important, but it made me sad anyway.”

Holden The Catcher In The Rye Salinger J D Salinger Catcher In The Rye

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of trying to make me happy”

Happy Paranoid J D Salinger

Author:J.D. Salinger

“a stunning glimpse of Buddy, at a later date by innumerable years, quite bereft of my dubious, loving company, writing about this very party on a very large, jet-black, very moving, gorgeous typewriter. He is smoking a cigarette, occasionally clasping his hands and placing them on the top of his head in a thoughtful, exhausted manner. His hair is gray; he is older than you are now, Les! The veins in his hands are slightly prominent in the glimpse, so I have not mentioned the matter to him at all, partially considering his youthful prejudice against veins showing in poor adults’ hands. So it goes. You would think this particular glimpse would pierce the casual witness’s heart to the quick, disabling him utterly, so that he could not bring himself to discuss the glimpse in the least with his beloved, broadminded family. This is not exactly the case; it mostly makes me take an exceedingly deep breath as a simple, brisk measure against getting dizzy. It is his room that pierces me more than anything else. It is all his youthful dreams realized to the full! It has one of those beautiful windows in the ceiling that he has always, to my absolute knowledge, fervently admired from a splendid reader’s distance! All round about him, in addition, are exquisite shelves to hold his books, equipment, tablets, sharp pencils, ebony, costly typewriter, and other stirring, personal effects. Oh, my God, he will be overjoyed when he sees that room, mark my words! It is one of the most smiling, comforting glimpses of my entire life and quite possibly with the least strings attached. In a reckless manner of speaking, I would far from object if that were practically the last glimpse of my life.”

J D Salinger

Book:Hapworth 16, 1924

Source: Hapworth 16, 1924

“Thirty-seven of them will be about shy, reclusive pennsylvania dutch lesbian who wants to write, told first-person by a lecherous hired hand. In dialect.”

J D Salinger Franny And Zooey

Author:J.D. Salinger

“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 thought 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.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuﬀ, though.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“The only way he ever did anything was if you yelled at him.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“But he was mostly the kind of a handsome guy that if your parents saw his picture in your Year Book, they’d right away say, “Who’s this boy?” I mean he was mostly a Year Book kind of handsome guy.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I started imitating one of those guys in the movies. In one of those musicals. I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“For once in my stupid life, I was really glad to see him. He took my mind oﬀ the other stuﬀ.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“That guy had just about everything. Sinus trouble, pimples, lousy teeth, halitosis, crumby ﬁngernails.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Well, the thing is, I don’t want to stay at any hotels on the East Side where I might run into some acquaintances of mine. I’m traveling incognito.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“She was always reading, and she read very good books. She read a lot of poetry and all.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“He was about the touchiest guy I ever met. Everything you said made him sore.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“In the ﬁrst place, I’m sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don’t care too much for most of the other stuﬀ in the Bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting Him down.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“But Catholics are always trying to ﬁnd out if you’re a Catholic even if they don’t know your last name.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Must we pursue this horrible trend of thought?”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“It’s funny. You take adults, they look lousy when they’re asleep and they have their mouths way open, but kids don’t. Kids look all right. They can even have spit all over the pillow and they still look all right.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I've read this same sentence about twenty times since you came in." Anybody else except Ackley would've taken the goddamn hint. Not him though... "What the hellya reading?" "Goddamn book." He shoved my book back with his hand so that he could see the name on it. "Any good?" he said. "This sentence I'm reading is terrific.”

Book The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Author:J. D. Salinger

“I also say "Boy" a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and some times I act like I'm about thirteen. It's really ironical, because I'm six foot two and a half and I have gray hair.”

Salinger J D Salinger Catcher In The Rye

Author:J. D. Salinger

“I always pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something.”

Humour J D Salinger Catcher In The Rye

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“You know that apple Adam ate in the Garden of Eden, referred to in the Bible?’ he asked. ‘You know what was in that apple? Logic. Logic and intellectual stuff. That was all that was in it. So—this is my point—what you have to do is vomit it up if you want to see things as they really are.”

J D Salinger Jd Salinger

Author:J.D. Salinger

“Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn't get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway. I didn't care, though. I felt so damn happy all of a 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.”

Rain J D Salinger Catcher In The Rye Rye

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“So what do you think?’ He asked, holding up the book. ‘I think Salinger is a closet paedophile,’ I replied placidly and was surprised and comforted by this minuscule, acidic, bitter Sylvia Plath like mocking, sniping tone that had crept into my voice. ‘The main character Seymour is a fully grown man and a pervert who befriends young girls with his storytelling and swimming, just to get close enough to groom them in preparation for the inevitable sexual assault he lusts after. You might have noticed for example in A Perfect Day For Bananafish he grabs the young girls-’ ‘Sybil.’ ‘He grabs Sybil’s ankles while lying on the beach and again when he pushes her in the water,’ I continued. ‘He goes too far when he kisses the bottom of her foot which makes even a four-year-old yell out in fear, knowing a line had been crossed. Frustrated Seymour walks away and goes back to his hotel where he kills himself in shame.”

Book Quote Sylvia Plath J D Salinger

Author:J.D. Gallagher

“I've mercifully been allowed the usual professional quota of unmerry thoughts.”

J D Salinger Unmerry Thoughts

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

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

“I shook my head. I shake my head quite a lot. “Boy!” I said. I also say “Boy!” quite a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“I ﬂunked you in history because you knew absolutely nothing.” “I know that, sir. Boy, I know it. You couldn’t help it.” “Absolutely nothing,” he said over again. That’s something that drives me crazy. When people say something twice that way, after you admit it the ﬁrst time. Then he said it three times. “But absolutely nothing. I doubt very much if you opened your textbook even once the whole term. Did you? Tell the truth, boy.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy?” “Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do.” I thought about it for a minute. “But not too much, I guess. Not too much, I guess.” “You will,” old Spencer said. “You will, boy. You will when it’s too late.” I didn’t like hearing him say that. It made me sound dead or something. It was very depressing. “I guess I will,” I said.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Nobody won,” I said. Without looking up, though. “What?” he said. He always made you say everything twice. “Nobody won,” I said. I sneaked a look to see what he was ﬁddling around with on my chiﬀonier.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“He came over and stood right in my light. “Hey,” I said. “I’ve read this same sentence about twenty times since you came in.” Anybody else except Ackley would’ve taken the goddam hint. Not him, though.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Finally, I put my book down on the ﬂoor. You couldn’t read anything with a guy like Ackley around. It was impossible.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

“Who’s Stradlater’s date?” he said. He was always keeping tabs on who Stradlater was dating, even though he hated Stradlater’s guts.”

The Catcher In The Rye J D Salinger

Book:THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Source: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE