J. D. Salinger Quotes

Quotes about:

• One day a long time from now you'll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That's when you'll finally produce the work you're capable of.

  J. D. Salinger

  Long, One Day, Care

  "Other People's Secrets" by Joyce Maynard, www.sfgate.com. September 13, 1998.

  79 Copy quote

• The world is full of actors pretending to be human

  J. D. Salinger

  Actors, World, Pretending

  42 Copy quote

• Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

  J. D. Salinger

  Beautiful, Confused, Mean

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

  48 Copy quote

• I’ll read my books and I’ll drink coffee and I’ll listen to music, and I’ll bolt the door.

  J. D. Salinger

  Coffee, Book, Doors

  45 Copy quote

• Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.

  J. D. Salinger

  Laughing

  75 Copy quote

• All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

  J. D. Salinger

  Hate, Catchers, Holden

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

  51 Copy quote

• She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

  J. D. Salinger

  Girl, Reading, Together

  "A Girl I Knew". Short story by J. D. Salinger, 1948.

  77 Copy quote

• The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

  J. D. Salinger

  Growing Up, Maturity, Men

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

  43 Copy quote

• I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

  J. D. Salinger

  Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

  61 Copy quote

• Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly

  J. D. Salinger

  Mind, Dresses, Measurement

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

  18 Copy quote

• Hell is the suffering of being unable to love.

  J. D. Salinger

  Inspirational, Being In Love, Inability To Love

  27 Copy quote

• Most stuff that is genuine is better left unsaid.

  J. D. Salinger

  Stuff, Unsaid, Genuine

  "Unsealed Letters Offer Glimpse of Salinger" by Alison Leigh Cowan, www.nytimes.com. February 11, 2010.

  15 Copy quote

• I have so much I want to tell you, and nowhere to begin.

  J. D. Salinger

  Want

  10 Copy quote

• It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.

  J. D. Salinger

  Literature, Want, Holden Caulfield

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

  56 Copy quote

• Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.

  J. D. Salinger

  Running, Hope, Crazy

  Catcher in the Rye (1951) ch. 22

  55 Copy quote

• I'm up to my ears in unwritten words.

  J. D. Salinger

  Ears, Written Word, Unwritten

  14 Copy quote

• If you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

  J. D. Salinger

  Beautiful, Human Behavior, Offers

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

  33 Copy quote

• I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.

  J. D. Salinger

  Truth, Sick, Interesting

  "Franny and Zooey". Book by J. D. Salinger, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1961.

  28 Copy quote

• Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They're always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.

  J. D. Salinger

  Weather, Emotion, Poet

  J. D. SALINGER (1968). “FOR ESME- WITH LOVE AND SQUALOR”

  10 Copy quote

• People always clap for the wrong reasons.

  J. D. Salinger

  People, Rewards And Recognition, Reason

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

  7 Copy quote

• That's something that annoys the hell out of me-I mean if somebody says the coffee's all ready and it isn't.

  J. D. Salinger

  Coffee, Mean, Annoying

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

  27 Copy quote

• I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

  J. D. Salinger

  People, Liking Someone, Sick

  25 Copy quote

• I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.

  J. D. Salinger

  I Hate You, Mean, Puddles

  "Salinger by David Shields and Shane Salerno - review" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. September 16, 2013.

  42 Copy quote

• Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

  J. D. Salinger

  Funny, Memorable, Missing

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

  45 Copy quote

• Oh, this happiness is strong stuff.

  J. D. Salinger

  Strong, Stuff

  "Top 10 books about being alone" by Rebecca Dinerstein, www.theguardian.com. June 10, 2015.

  6 Copy quote

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