Quotes by J. D. Salinger

“To you everything thats happening in the world appears phony, to be something other than what it really is, right?”

“Its no fun to be yellow.”

“Id thought what Id do was, Id pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.”

“Life is a gift horse in my opinion.”

“He had a theory, Walt did, that 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.”

“The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let themdo it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them.”

“Anyway, Im sort of glad theyve got the atomic bomb invented. If theres ever another war, Im going to sit right the hell on top of it. Ill volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.”

“Its really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.”

“If you want to know the truth, Im a virgin. I really am. Ive had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but Ive never got around to it yet.”

“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”

“Where theres smoke, theres usually strawberry Jello.”

“Mistakes happen when you dont care enough to make the right decision, but someone else does.”

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

“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.”

“Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then its a game, all right - Ill admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there arent any hot-shots, then whats a game about it? Nothing. No game.”

“Half the time, if you really want to know the truth, when Im horsing around with a girl, I have a helluva lot of trouble just finding what Im looking for, for Gods sake, if you know what I mean”

A confessional passage has probably never been written that didnt stink a little bit of the writers pride in having given up his pride.

Im sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

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

Im sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.