J.D. Salinger Quotes

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

when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose.

If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible.

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.

It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true.

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.

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

Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out?

The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has - I'm not kidding.

If you're not in
the mood, you can't do that stuff right.

In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw.

I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.

It's everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so - I don't know - not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and - sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way.

I think that one of these days," he said, "you're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you've got to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to lose a minute. Not you.

The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs-if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't. You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do. They really do.

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.

And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.

I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.

I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a while, even if they're only scratching their arms or blowing their noses or even just giggling or something.