J.D. Salinger Quotes

The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.

There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady.

Undoubtedly, though, what I'm really getting at is this: Since the bridegroom's permanent retirement from the scene, I haven't been able to think of anybody whom I'd care to send out to look for horse...

What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nic...

What're you majoring in? I asked him. Perverts? I was only horsing around. What're you trying to be--funny?

When I really worry about something, I don´t just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don´t go. I´m too worried to go. I don´t want to interrupt my wor...

When you don't see Jesus for exactly what he was, you miss the whole point of the Jesus Prayer. If you don't understand Jesus, you can't understand his prayer - you don't get the prayer at all, you ju...

Would you like to know how Charlotte got those nine stitches? I asked suddenly, in a tone of voice that sounded perfectly normal to me. We were up at the Lake. Seymour had written to Charlotte, inviti...

You hate to tell new stuff to somebody around a hundred years old. They don't like to hear it.

A lot of schools were home for vacation already, and there were about a million girls sitting and standing around waiting for their dates to show up. Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their le...

But the thing is, you raved and you bitched when you came home about the stupidity of audiences. The goddam unskilled laughter coming from the fifth row. And that's right, that's right - God knows it'...

Father said I have no sense of humor at all. He said I was unequipped to meet life because I have no sense of humor.

For joy, apparently, it was all Franny could do to hold the phone, even with both hands.

Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.

He seemed unaware of the messiness of the arrangement.

I believe I essentially remain what I have always been--a narrator, but one with extremely pressing personal needs. I want to introduce, I want to describe, I want to distribute mementos, amulets, I w...

I don't care if it's a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.

I don't know about bores. Maybe you shouldn't feel too sorry if you see some swell girl getting married to them. They don't hurt anybody, most of them, and maybe they're secretly all terrific whistler...

I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.

I know. I'm very hard to talk to. I realize that.