She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

Did you see more glass?

The room was not impressively large, even by Manhattan apartment-house standards, but its accumulated furnishings might have lent a snug appearance to a banquet hall in Valhalla.

Nobody who's really using his ego, his real ego, has any time for any goddam hobbies

The Great Gatsby' [...] was my 'Tom Sawyer' when I was twelve [....]

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.

I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty... you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.