Do you know what I was smiling at? You wrote down that you were a writer by profession. It sounded to me like the loveliest euphemism I had ever heard. When was writing ever your profession? It’s never been anything but your religion.
J. D. SALINGERAn artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.
More J. D. Salinger Quotes
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I could happily lie down and die sometimes.
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The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.
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She was not one for emptying her face of expression.
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You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.
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Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.
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Who in the Bible besides Jesus knew–knew–that we’re carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we’re all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look?
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I have scars on my hands from touching certain people…Certain heads, certain colours and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me.
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I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.
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Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way you get tired riding in elevators. All of a sudden, you have to walk, no matter how far or how high up.
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Did you ever get fed up?’ I said. ‘I mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something?
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I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do.
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The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has — I’m not kidding.
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Why’s it so sunny? she repeated. Zooey observed her rather narrowly. I bring the sun wherever I go, buddy, he said.
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That’s something that annoys the hell out of me-I mean if somebody says the coffee’s all ready and it isn’t.
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Always, always, always referring every goddam thing that happens right back to our lousy little egos.
J. D. SALINGER






