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
good-night stars heart
Keep me up till five because all your stars are out, and for no other reason…Oh dare to do it Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you. Good night. I’m feeling very much over-excited now, and a little dramatic, but I think I’d give almost anything on earth to see you writing a something, an anything, a poem, a tree, that was really and truly after your own heart.
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.
mean eye heart
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.
heart autumn garage
Your heart, Bessie, is an autumn garage.
stars writing heart
Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out?
fed lousy mean scared unless
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?
Yes. That's it. That's the document. Where did you get it?
hell instead saying
Why the hell don'tcha, instead of keep saying it?
funny memorable missing
Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
mean scared feds
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?
point reached saying sure totally
We have now reached the point where we are totally sure what we are saying is true.
people plotting suspect
I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
bad care hanging hate leave leaving left mean places sad schools trying
What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by, or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.
government russians unless
We don't want to get the Russians involved, but unless the U.S. government cooperates, we may have to.