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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
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Plainly
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Materials
Poet
More quotes by J. D. Salinger
Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.
J. D. Salinger
Boy, did he depress me! I don't mean he was a bad guy- he wasn't. But you don't have to be bad guy to depress somebody- you can be a good guy and do it.
J. D. Salinger
There isn't anyone anywhere who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. Don't you know that? Don't you know that goddam secret yet? And don't you know — listen to me, now — don't you know who that Fat Lady really is? . . . Ah, buddy. Ah, buddy. It's Christ Himself. Christ Himself, buddy.
J. D. Salinger
Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way you get tired riding in elevators. All of a sudden, you have to walk, no matter how far or how high up.
J. D. Salinger
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
It's so silly. All you do is get the heck out of your body when you die. My gosh, everybody's done it thousands of times. Just because they don't remember, it doesn't mean they haven't done it.
J. D. Salinger
Always, always, always referring every goddam thing that happens right back to our lousy little egos.
J. D. Salinger
I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do
J. D. Salinger
If I'd wanted this place to fill up with every fat Irish rose that passes by, I'd've said so.
J. D. Salinger
I know. I'm very hard to talk to. I realize that.
J. D. Salinger
I just hope that one day - preferably when we’re both blind drunk - we can talk about it.
J. D. Salinger
Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out?
J. D. Salinger
Don't hate me because I can't remember some person immediately. Especially when they look like everybody else, and talk and dress and act like everybody else.
J. D. Salinger
I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.
J. D. Salinger
That's the terrible part. I swear to God I'm a madman.
J. D. Salinger
I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.
J. D. Salinger
I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question.
J. D. Salinger
If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me.
J. D. Salinger
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
Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row.
J. D. Salinger