693 Quotes by J.D. Salinger

He told me to be funny for the Fat Lady, once.

I’m just interested in finding out what the hell goes. I mean do you have to be a goddam bohemian type, or dead, for Chrissake, to be a real poet? What do you want – some bastard with wavy hair?

You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.

He hated it when you called him a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

I prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone – a-l-o-n-e: which is the one New York prayer that rarely gets lost or delayed in channels, and in no time at all everything I touched turned to solid loneliness.

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

That’s the whole trouble. When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think.

I could happily lie down and die sometimes.

But you don’t have to be a bad guy to depress somebody – you can be a good guy and do it.