It's one of those places that are supposed to be very sophisticated and all, and the phonies are coming in the window.
J. D. SalingerIt happens to be one of those days when I see everybody in the family, including myself, through the wrong end of a telescope.
J. D. SalingerHe said you were the only one who was bitter about S.'s suicide and the only one who really forgave him for it. The rest of us, he said, were outwardly unbitter and inwardly unforgiving.
J. D. SalingerAgainst my better judgment I feel certain that somewhere very near hereโthe first house down the road, maybeโthere's a good poet dying, but also somewhere very near here somebody's having a hilarious pint of pus taken from her lovely young body, and I can't be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.
J. D. SalingerYouโd better get busy, though, buddy. The goddam sands run out on you every time You turn around. I know what Iโm talking about. Youโre lucky if you get time to sneeze In this goddam phenomenal world.
J. D. SalingerAnyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.
J. D. Salinger