9 Quotes by J. D. Salinger about writing


  • Author J. D. Salinger
  • Quote

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

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

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  • Author J. D. Salinger
  • Quote

    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.

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  • Author J. D. Salinger
  • Quote

    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.

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  • Author J. D. Salinger
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    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.

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  • Author J. D. Salinger
  • Quote

    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.

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  • Author J. D. Salinger
  • Quote

    There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

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