Catcher in the Rye Quotes

I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.

I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed.

I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.

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.

People always clap for the wrong things.

Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior.

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.

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.

Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.

I’m always saying Glad to’ve met you to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

They didn’t act like people and they didn’t act like actors. It’s funny.

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.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour.

Make me believe it’s true, J.D. Salinger said, and I will be right there with you.

When you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something.

It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.

But I was only horsing around. That’s really all I was doing.

How do you know what you’re going to do till you do it?

I was lonesome. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.

Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy?

Grand. There’s a word I really hate. It’s a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.

Mothers are all slightly insane.

I didn’t care what I was saying. I was just trying to keep that conversation going, in case old Jane Gallagher’s mother was listening outside the door.

It’s no fun to be yellow.

It’s no fun to be in only one place all the time.

I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go.

This is a people shooting hat, I said. I shoot people in this hat.

People never notice anything.

They go right on talking, in fact, they almost act like they’re in a graveyard.

My brother D.B.’s terrific. He’s really a professional prostitute.

I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.

This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking.

It’s a crazy idea. I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

Most guys at Pencey just talked about having sexual intercourse with girls all the time – like Ackley, for instance – but old Stradlater really did it. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I’m about thirteen. It’s really ironical, because I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. I really do. The one side of my head – the right side – is full of millions of gray hairs. I’ve had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve. Everybody says that, especially my father. It’s partly true, too, but it isn’t all true. People always think something’s all true.

It always ends up making you blue as hell.

Sleep tight, ya morons!

You don’t always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl.

Certain things 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.

Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake – especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.

Girls. You never know what they’re going to think.

I’d rather tell you my mother than my emotions.

I am always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

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.

Lawyers are all right, I guess — but it doesn’t appeal to me, I said. I mean they’re all right if they go around saving innocent guys’ lives all the time, and like that, but you don’t do that kind of stuff if you’re a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot.

It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

I’m always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.