J. D. Salinger Quotes - Page 12

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• You know, I'm the only one in this family who has no problems, . . . And you know why? Because any time I'm feeling blue, or puzzled , what I do, I just invite a few people to come visit me in the bathroom, and--well, we iron things out together, that's all.

  J. D. Salinger

  Blue, Iron, People

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

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• I was surrounded by jerks. I'm not kidding.

  J. D. Salinger

  Jerk

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

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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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• ... even the most sublimely accomplished non-stop talker can't consistently please.

  J. D. Salinger

  Accomplished, Talkers, Please

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• Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.

  J. D. Salinger

  Giving, Ends, Give Me

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

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• Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it - the same night, as a matter of fact.

  J. D. Salinger

  Girl, Sex, Pain

  'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951) ch. 9

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• Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.

  J. D. Salinger

  War, Swear To God, Volunteer

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

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• Life is a gift horse in my opinion.

  J. D. Salinger

  Life, Horse, Opinion

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

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• Then again you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.'

  J. D. Salinger

  Hate, People, Secret

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

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• If you're going to say the Jesus Prayer, at least say it to Jesus, and not to St. Francis and Seymour and Heidi's grandfather all wrapped up in one.

  J. D. Salinger

  Jesus, Prayer, Grandfather

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

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• But where does by far the bulk, the whole ambulance load, of pain really come from? Where must it come from? Isn't the true poet or painter a seer? Isn't he, actually, the only seer we have
  on earth? Most apparently not the scientist, most emphatically not the psychiatrist.

  J. D. Salinger

  Pain, Doe, Earth

  "Seymour: An Introduction (1959)". "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction". Book by J. D. Salinger, 1963.

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• 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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Mother, Fun, Crazy

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “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.

  J. D. Salinger

  Thinking, People, Presidential

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