J. D. Salinger Quotes

One day a long time from now you'll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That's when you'll finally produce the work you're capable of.

Girls. You never know what they're going to think.

The world is full of actors pretending to be human

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

Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

I’ll read my books and I’ll drink coffee and I’ll listen to music, and I’ll bolt the door.

Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly

Most stuff that is genuine is better left unsaid.

Happiness is a solid and joy is a liquid.

I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

Hell is the suffering of being unable to love.

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.

I have so much I want to tell you, and nowhere to begin.

Are all your stars shining?

People always clap for the wrong reasons.

I'm up to my ears in unwritten words.

Who in the Bible besides Jesus knew--knew--that we're carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we're all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look?

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 the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. 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 love to write and I assure you I write regularly... But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it.

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.

If you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

I mean it's very hard to meditate and live a spiritual life in America. People think you're a freak if you try to.