A story never ends. The narrator is usually provided with a nice, artistic spot for his voice to stop, but that's about all.

— J.D. Salinger

Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carousel, so they wouldn't get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway. I didn't care, though. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. Furthermore, I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. Furthermore, I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there.

— J.D. Salinger

But I'm Crazy. I swear to God I am.

— J.D. Salinger

But I was afraid of the questions (much more than the accusations) you might both put to me.

— J.D. Salinger

But what I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most.

— J.D. Salinger

But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them— all cockeyed naturally— what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it.

— J.D. Salinger

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.

— J.D. Salinger

Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

— J.D. Salinger

Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. - Holden Caulfield

— J.D. Salinger

Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their legs not crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls, girls that looked like they'd be bitches if you knew them... You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. Guys that get sore and childish as hell if you beat them at golf, or even just some stupid game like ping-pong. Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring.

— J.D. Salinger