I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake--especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all.

He once told Allie and I that if he'd had to shoot anybody, he wouldn't've known which direction to shoot in. He said the Army was practically as full of bastards as the Nazis were.

After I go out this door, I may only exist in the minds of all my acquaintances…I may be an orange peel.

... even the most sublimely accomplished non-stop talker can't consistently please.

I kept picturing all these little kids in this big field of rye... If they're running and they don't look where they're going, I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.

I know. I'm very hard to talk to. I realize that.

Each of his phrases was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey.