J. D. Salinger Quotes

Boy, did he depress me! I don't mean he was a bad guy- he wasn't. But you don't have to be bad guy to depress somebody- you can be a good guy and do it.

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.

«مَتی، تو الآن دخترِ کوچیکی هستی. اما هیچ‌کی دختربچه و پسربچه نمی‌مونه - مثلِ خودِ من. یه‌هو دختربچه‌ها ماتیک می‌زنن و پسربچه‌ها ریش می‌تراشن و سیگار می‌کشن. پس خیلی گذراست؛ روزگارِ بچگی رو می‌گم. امروز ده سالته، تو برف می‌دویی می‌آی منو ببینی، و حاضری با من تو خیابون اسپرینگ سُر بخوری؛ فردا بیست‌ساله می‌شی و پسرا می‌آن تو اتاق نشیمن منتظر می‌شن تا حاضر شی و با هم برین بیرون. یه‌هو می‌بینی باید به دربونا انعام بدی، فکرِ گرونی و ارزونیِ لباسات باشی و با دوستات واسه ناهار قرار بذاری و همه‌ش فکر کنی چرا یه مردِ درست و حسابی واسه‌ت پیدا نمی‌شه. همیشه همین‌جور بوده. ولی مَتی حرفِ من -اگه حرفی داشته باشم- اینه که سعی کن مطابقِ تواناییا و آرزوهات زندگی کنی. اگه به مردم قولی می‌دی کاری کن بفهمن از تهِ دل داری قول می‌دی. اگه تو کالج با یه دخترِ خنگ هم‌اتاق شدی، سعی کن کاری کنی بیشتر بفهمه. اگه بیرونِ سینما واسّادی و یه پیرزن میاد بهت آدامس بفروشه، اگه یه دلاری داری همه‌شو بهش بده -ولی فقط یه طوری این‌کارو بکن که بهش برنخوره. درستش اینه، بچه‌جون. خیلی چیزا می‌تونم بهت بگم بگم مَت، ولی نمی‌دونم حرفام درسته یا نه. تو خیلی کوچولویی، ولی حرفمو می‌فهمی. بزرگ که بشی دخترِ باهوشی می‌شی. اگه دختر باهوش و باحالی نشی می‌خوام اصلا بزرگ نشی. تو باید عالی باشی، مَت.

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

The religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.

If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet.

That cat was a spy. You had to take a pot shot at it. It was a very clever German midget dressed up in a cheap fur coat.

The rest were standing around in hatless, smoky little groups of twos and threes and fours inside the heated waiting room, talking in voices that, almost without exception, sounded collegiately dogmatic, as though each young man, in his strident, conversational turn, was clearing up, once and for all, some highly controversial issue, one that the outside, non-matriculating world had been bungling, provocatively or not, for centuries.

And I hate to tell you... but I think that once you have a fair idea where you want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in a school. You'll have to. You're a student — whether the idea appeals to you or not. You're in love with knowledge. And I think you'll find, once... you get past all the Mr. Vinsons, you're going to start getting closer and closer — that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for it — to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart. 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... Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of thier troubles. You'll learn from them — if you want to. Just someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry... But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they’re brilliant and creative to begin with — which, unfortunately, is rarely the case — tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. And — most important — nine times out of ten they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker.

And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up.

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

Listen, if you're not going to be a nun or something, you might as well laugh.

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

Liberate yourself from my vice-like grip!

All I know is I’m losing my mind,” Franny said. “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 is, it is. I don’t care what anybody says.