J. D. Salinger's best quotes, from The Catcher in the Rye to Franny and Zooey
The top 3 according to 83 votes from people: If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like… · 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. · I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.. (Updated Sep 1, 2021.)
"If you really want to hear about it", the catcher in the rye, the ducks in Central Park and "Don't ever tell anybody anything": the most quoted lines by J. D. Salinger, with the book and chapter or story each comes from.
Top 14
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1
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like…
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 1.
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2
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.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 16.
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3
I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 3.
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4
There is a marvelous peace in not publishing.
Interview with Lacey Fosburgh, The New York Times, 1974.
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5
I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye… I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 22.
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6
I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 2.
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7
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.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 3.
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8
Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 26.
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9
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.
The Catcher in the Rye, chapter 24: Mr. Antolini quoting the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel.
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10
Poets are always taking the weather so personally.
Teddy (1953).
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11
I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955), Seymour's diary.
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12
There isn't anyone anywhere that isn't Seymour's Fat Lady.
Zooey (1957).
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13
People always think something's all true.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), chapter 1.
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14
The most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.
De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period (1952).
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (1)
Read Catcher at 15 and thought Holden was a genius, reread it at 30 and just wanted to buy the kid a sandwich. The ducks line still gets me though.