J. D. Salinger Quotes about Writing

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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 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.

J. D. Salinger

Writing, Want, Pleasure

J. D. Salinger (2016). “J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations”, p.77, Melville House

You think of the book you'd most like to be reading, and then you sit down and shamelessly write it.

J. D. Salinger

Book, Reading, Writing

An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.

J. D. Salinger

Art, Writing, Perfection

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

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

J. D. Salinger

Stars, Writing, Heart

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

J. D. Salinger

Hate, Writing, Phony

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

Do you know what I was smiling at? You wrote down that you were a writer by profession. It sounded to me like the loveliest euphemism I had ever heard. When was writing ever your profession? It's never been anything but your religion.

J. D. Salinger

Writing, Heard, Euphemism

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

Keep me up till five because all your stars are out, and for no other reason…Oh dare to do it Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you. Good night. I’m feeling very much over-excited now, and a little dramatic, but I think I’d give almost anything on earth to see you writing a something, an anything, a poem, a tree, that was really and truly after your own heart.

J. D. Salinger

Good Night, Stars, Writing

You can't argue with someone who believes, or just passionately suspects, that the poet's function is not to write what he must write but, rather, to write what he would write if his life depended on his taking responsibility for writing what he must in a style designed to shut out as few of his old librarians as humanly possible.

J. D. Salinger

Believe, Writing, Responsibility

There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It's peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I live to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure. I don't necessarily intend to publish posthumously, but I do like to write for myself. I pay for this kind of attitude. I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work.

J. D. Salinger

Attitude, Writing, Men

"Salinger: A Biography". Book by Paul Alexander, 2000.

If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.

J. D. Salinger

Believe, Writing, Heart

I don't suppose a writing man ever really gets rid of his old crocus-yellow neckties. Sooner or later, I think, they show up in his prose, and there isn't a hell of a lot he can do about it.

J. D. Salinger

Writing, Men, Thinking

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