Quotes by J. Salinger

• The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.
• I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.
• An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.
• Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.
• He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.
• How do you know you're going to do something, untill you do it?
• How long should a man's legs be? Long enough to touch the ground.
• I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
• I don't even like old cars. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.
• I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.
• You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.
• I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.
• They didn't act like people and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good.
• I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.
• I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.
• If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody.
• It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it.
• It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.
• Its really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.
• Mothers are all slightly insane.
• People never believe you.
• People never notice anything.
• 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.