51 J. D. Salinger Quotes About Life (MEANINGFUL)

Top 12 Most Famous J. D. Salinger Quotes (BEST)

“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.”
J. D. Salinger

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

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

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. — 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.

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

“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.”
J. D. Salinger

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

All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

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

The world is full of actors pretending to be human.

What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.

9 Wise J. D. Salinger Quotes to Live by (WISDOM)

“I’m aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’ Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It’s almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf, out of their reach.”
J. D. Salinger

Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. — Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

Hell is the suffering of being unable to love. — Hell is the suffering of being unable to **love**.

Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly.

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

You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart. — You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they’re mean bastards at heart.

Most stuff that is genuine is better left unsaid.

I don't really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it's always nice, I'll grant you, if he has one. — I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of **writers** he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.

How do you know you're going to do something, until you do it? — How do you know you’re going to do something, until you do it?

2 J. D. Salinger Quotes on Love

I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect. — I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could **respect**.

If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? — If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late?

4 J. D. Salinger Quotes About Life

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell. — Goddam **money**. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work. — I’m known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I’m doing is trying to protect myself and my work.

It's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs. — It’s really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.

I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice. — I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.

2 J. D. Salinger Quotes on Poets

Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They're always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions. — **Poets** are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their **emotions** in things that have no emotions.

The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it.

2 J. D. Salinger Quotes on Happiness

The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid. — The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between **happiness** and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.

12 J. D. Salinger Quotes to Ponder

“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.”
J. D. Salinger

I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. — I’m sick of not having the **courage** to be an absolute nobody.

I am always saying 'Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though. — I am always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

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

How long should a man's legs be Long enough to touch the ground. — How long should a man’s legs be? Long enough to touch the ground.

“That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”
J. D. Salinger

I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it. — I don’t exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.

Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.

“When you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”
J. D. Salinger

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. — 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.

“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera. It’s terrible.”
J. D. Salinger

Mothers are all slightly insane. — **Mothers** are all slightly insane.

5 J. D. Salinger Quotes on Reading and Writing

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”
J. D. Salinger