The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it.
J. D. SalingerYou can't argue with someone who believes, or just passionately suspects, that the poet's function is not to write what he must write but, rather, to write what he would write if his life depended on his taking responsibility for writing what he must in a style designed to shut out as few of his old librarians as humanly possible.
J. D. SalingerI think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes.
J. D. SalingerThe connection was so bad, and I couldnโt 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 โWhat?
J. D. Salinger