J. D. Salinger Quotes - Page 11

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Eye, Boys, Two

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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!

  J. D. Salinger

  Thinking, Goal, Words Of Wisdom

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

  J. D. Salinger

  Swear To God, Terrible, Madmen

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

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Dark, Doubt, Cards

  j.d. salinger (1961). “franny and zooey”

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

  J. D. Salinger

  Knows

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

  J. D. Salinger

  Thinking, Feelings, Trouble

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

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• Then I’d throw my automatic down the elevator shaft-after I’d wiped off all the fingerprints and all. Then I’d crawl back up to my room and call up Jane and have her come over and bandage up my guts. I pictured her holding a cigarette for me to smoke while I was bleeding and all. The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I’m not kidding.

  J. D. Salinger

  Bleeding, Rooms, Ruins

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• You’d better get busy, though, buddy. The goddam sands run out on you every time You turn around. I know what I’m talking about. You’re lucky if you get time to sneeze In this goddam phenomenal world.

  J. D. Salinger

  Running, Talking, Lucky

  "Zooey (1957)". "Franny and Zooey". Book by J. D. Salinger, 1961.

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• I didn't want any degrees if all the ill-read literates and radio announcers and pedagogical dummies I knew had them by the peck.

  J. D. Salinger

  Degrees, Want, Radio

  j.d. salinger (1961). “franny and zooey”

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Writing, Pleasure, Publishing

  J. D. Salinger (2016). “J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations”, p.29, Melville House

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• You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when I feel like it. I certainly don't use logic when I do it. Logic's the first thing you have to get rid of.

  J. D. Salinger

  Meditation, Use, Firsts

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

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• While I was walking I passed these two guys that were unloading this big Christmas tree off a truck. One guy, kept saying to the other guy, 'Hold the sonunvabitch up! Hold it up, for Chrissake!' It certainly was a gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree.

  J. D. Salinger

  Two, Guy, Tree

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• 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)

  J. D. Salinger

  Usual, Horror, Seats

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Men, Becoming, Chance

  "Salinger Was Playing Our Song" by John Romano, archive.nytimes.com. June 03, 1979.

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• I kept picturing all these little kids in this big field of rye... If they're running and they don't look where they're going, I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.

  J. D. Salinger

  Running, Inspiration, Kids

  'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951) ch. 22.

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• We’re freaks, that’s all. Those two bastards got us nice and early and made us into freaks with freakish standards, that’s all. We’re the tattooed lady, and we’re never going to have a minute’s peace, the rest of our lives, until everybody else is tattooed, too.

  J. D. Salinger

  Nice, Two, Freak

  j.d. salinger (1961). “franny and zooey”

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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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Zoos, New York, Home

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Girl, Horse, Fun

  "The Catcher in the Rye". Book by J. D. Salinger, 1951.

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• 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. I know it's crazy.

  J. D. Salinger

  Crazy, Catchers, Holden

  Catcher in the Rye (1951) ch. 22

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

  J. D. Salinger

  Doors, Orange, Mind

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

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Light, Dust, Touching

  "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955)". "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction". Book by J. D. Salinger, 1963.

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• It's one of those places that are supposed to be very sophisticated and all, and the phonies are coming in the window.

  J. D. Salinger

  Window, Sophisticated, Phony

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

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Uncles, Father, Nice

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

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• I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it - all those fancy costumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus really would've liked would be the guy who plays the kettle drums in the orchestra.

  J. D. Salinger

  Jesus, Atheist, Play

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

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• I don't hate too many guys. What I may do, I may hate them for a little while, like this guy Stradlater I knew at Pencey, and this other boy, Robert Ackley. I hate them once in a while—I admit it—but it doesn't last too long, is what I mean. After a while, if I didn't see them, if they didn't come in the room, or if I didn't see them in the dining room for a couple of meals, I sort of missed them. I mean I sort of missed them.

  J. D. Salinger

  Couple, Hate, Mean

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

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