J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salingerwas an American writer who won acclaim early in life. He led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 January 1919
CountryUnited States of America
girl sorry real
Real ugly girls have it tough. I feel so sorry for them sometimes.
kings stills ifs
Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row.
believe writing heart
If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.
sense-of-humor said
He said I was unequipped to meet life because I had no sense of humor.
messiness arrangements
He seemed unaware of the messiness of the arrangement.
want radio degrees
I didn't want any degrees if all the ill-read literates and radio announcers and pedagogical dummies I knew had them by the peck.
happiness running grief
And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.
thinking goal words-of-wisdom
I don’t think it would have all got me quite so down if just once in a while—just once in a while—there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time! But there never is! You never even hear any hints dropped on a campus that wisdom is supposed to be the goal of knowledge. You hardly ever even hear the word 'wisdom' mentioned!
book teaching reading
I asked him what, if anything, got him down about teaching. He said he didn't think that anything about it got him exactly down, but there was one thing, he thought, that frightened him: reading the pencilled notations in the margins of books in the college library.
fats
There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady.
want catchers
The catcher in the rye... that's all I really want to be...
stars giving stories
Give me a story that just makes me unreasonably vigilant. Keep me up till five only because all your stars are out, and for no other reason.
glasses
Did you see more glass?
strong likes-and-dislikes people
You don't know how to talk to people you don't like. Don't love, really. You can't live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes.