J. D. Salinger

I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.

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

I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty... you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.

The room was not impressively large, even by Manhattan apartment-house standards, but its accumulated furnishings might have lent a snug appearance to a banquet hall in Valhalla.

If you weren't around, I'd probably be someplace way the hell off. In the woods or some goddamn place. You're the only reason I'm around, practically.

But you can't always tell - with somebody's mother, I mean. Mothers are all slightly insane.

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 nice.

Money always ends up making you blue.

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 all terrific whistlers or something. Who the hell knows? Not me.

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

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

I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I'm crazy. I swear to God I am.

It was just terrible! And the worst part was, I knew what a bore I was being, I knew how I was depressing people, or even hurting their feelings- but I just couldn't stop! I just could not stop picking!

Bessie: 'Why don't you get married?' Zooey: 'I like riding in trains too much. You never get to sit next to the window anymore when you're married.

I knew it wasn't too important, but it made me sad anyway.

We don't talk, we hold forth. We don't converse, we expound.

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 know it's crazy.

Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day.

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

I'd swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet.

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