J.D. Salinger Quote

Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.

We have a bad habit of seeing books as sort of cheaply made movies where the words do nothing but create visual narratives in our heads.

is he crazy?" --Harcourt-Brace editor on Holden Caulfield

We have a bad habit of seeing books as sort of cheaply made movies where the words do nothing but create visual narratives in our heads.So too often what passes for literary criticism is "I couldn't p...

He knew he was sounding a little Holden Caulfield-esque calling everyone a phony, but he really did think everyone was a phony.

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 t...

D.B. asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling you about. I didn't know what the hell to say. If you want to know the truth, I don't know what I think about it. I'm sorry I...

Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.

I don’t give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am - I really do - but people never notice it. People never notice anything...

Lawyers are alright, I guess — but it doesn't appeal to me, I said. I mean they're alright if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuf...