The Catcher in the Rye

1. “I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”

2. “Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.” 

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

4. “Where do the ducks go in the winter?” 

5. “I was trying to feel some kind of good-bye. 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-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t you feel even worse.”

6.“I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do.” 

7. “I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.” 

8. “All morons hate it when you call them a moron.” 

9. „I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera. It’s terrible.“

10. “If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late?” 

11. “People always clap for the wrong reasons.”

12. "l'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"  

1

13.“How old are you? I asked her.

"Old enough to know better." she said.” 

14.“And I have quite a bit of gray hair.”
 

15.“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”

16.“And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I’d probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up.”

17.“Mothers are all slightly insane.” 

18.“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. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.” 

19.“Girls. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”

20.“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.”

21.“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.”

22.“In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw.” 

23.“She really started to cry, and the next thing I knew, I was kissing her all over - anywhere - her eyes, her nose, her forehead, her eyebrows, and all, her ears - her whole face except her mouth and all.”