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

J. D. Salinger

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J. D. Salinger
Age: 91 †
Born: 1919
Born: January 1
Died: 2010
Died: January 27
Author
Novelist
Writer
New York City
New York
Jerome David Salinger
Jerome Salinger
Chooses
Material
Materials
Poet
Choice
Choices
True
Plainly

More quotes by J. D. Salinger

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But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody. People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair.
J. D. Salinger
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The world is full of actors pretending to be human
J. D. Salinger
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When I really worry about something, I don’t just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don’t go. I’m too worried to go. I don’t want to interrupt my worrying to go.
J. D. Salinger
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The little girl on the plane Who turned her doll's head around To look at me.
J. D. Salinger
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I privately say to you, old friend... please accept from me this unpretentious bouquet of early-blooming parentheses: (((()))).
J. D. Salinger
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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.
J. D. Salinger
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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.
J. D. Salinger
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I have so much I want to tell you, and nowhere to begin.
J. D. Salinger
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Her joke of a name aside, her general unprettiness aside, she was, in terms of permanently memorable, immoderately perceptive, small-area faces, a stunning and final girl.
J. D. Salinger
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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.
J. D. Salinger
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Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.
J. D. Salinger
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It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.
J. D. Salinger
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If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.
J. D. Salinger
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You don't have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.
J. D. Salinger
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Yet a real artist, I've noticed, will survive anything. (Even praise, I happily suspect.)
J. D. Salinger
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I have scars on my hands from touching certain people.
J. D. Salinger
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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.
J. D. Salinger
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My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder's mitt. he was left handed. The thing that was descriptive about it though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he'd have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up to bat
J. D. Salinger
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I have scars on my hands from touching certain people…Certain heads, certain colours and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me.
J. D. Salinger
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You can't exist in this world with such strong likes and dislikes.
J. D. Salinger