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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
True
Plainly
Chooses
Material
Materials
Poet
Choice
Choices

More quotes by J. D. Salinger

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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
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You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when I feel like it. I certainly don't use logic when I do it. Logic's the first thing you have to get rid of.
J. D. Salinger
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After I go out this door, I may only exist in the minds of all my acquaintances…I may be an orange peel.
J. D. Salinger
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Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.
J. D. Salinger
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We don't talk, we hold forth. We don't converse, we expound.
J. D. Salinger
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She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.
J. D. Salinger
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I'd swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet.
J. D. Salinger
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Some of my best friedns are children. In fact, all of my best friends are children.
J. D. Salinger
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Women kill me. They really do. I don't mean I'm oversexed or anything like that—although I am quite sexy. I just like them, I mean. They're always leaving their goddam bags out in the middle of the aisle.
J. D. Salinger
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Oh, this happiness is strong stuff.
J. D. Salinger
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People never notice anything.
J. D. Salinger
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Who in the Bible besides Jesus knew--knew--that we're carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we're all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look?
J. D. Salinger
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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
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And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up.
J. D. Salinger
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The connection was so bad, and I couldn’t talk at all during most of the call. How terrible it is when you say I love you and the person at the other end shouts back ‘What?
J. D. Salinger
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I can be quite sarcastic when I'm in the mood.
J. D. Salinger
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Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly
J. D. Salinger
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I know. I'm very hard to talk to. I realize that.
J. D. Salinger
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It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it.
J. D. Salinger
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The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.
J. D. Salinger