Holden Caulfield Quotes:

I was surrounded by phonies...They were coming in the goddam window.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Window, Phony, Holden Caulfield

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.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Laughter, Stupid, Mean, Have A Laugh, Holden Caulfield

It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Girl, Football, Sex, Clique, Holden Caulfield

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.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Friendship, Stuff, Alive, Catchers, Staying Alive

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

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Funny, Memorable, Missing, Catchers, Best Literature

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

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Lonesome, Felt, Lonesomeness, Holden Caulfield

I mean most girls are so dumb and all. After you neck them for a while, you can really watch them losing their brains. You take a girl when she really gets passionate, she just hasn't any brains. -Holden Caulfield

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Girl, Mean, Dumb, Holden Caulfield, Holden

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

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Girl, Night, Thinking, Holden Caulfield

All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Hate, Moron, Catchers, Holden Caulfield, Holden

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.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Liars, Memorable, Magazines, Catchers, Terrific

What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

topic: Suicide, Stupid, Jumping, Committing Suicide, Holden Caulfield

I don't even know what I was running for—I guess I just felt like it.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Running, Holden Caulfield, Holden

I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Nice, Excited, Holden Caulfield

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

source: "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger, (Ch. 16), 1951.

topic: Life, Change, Glasses, Holden Caulfield, Holden

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 do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.

- J. D. Salinger

source: Catcher in the Rye (1951) ch. 22

topic: Hope, Running, Crazy, Catchers, Standing On The Edge

I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes.

- J. D. Salinger

source: "The Catcher in the Rye". Book by J. D. Salinger, 1951.

topic: Girl, Horse, Fun, Holden Caulfield

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Reading, Book, Memorable, Reading Novels, Holden Caulfield

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

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Literature, Want, Holden Caulfield

Holden Caulfield is the embodiment of what we mean by the phrase “young adult” – too young to be a grown-up, but too wise to the world to be completely innocent. He’s caught in the in-between, and that in-between is what all young adult authors write about.

- David Levithan

topic: Wise, Writing, Mean, Young Adult, Holden Caulfield

If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Girl, Giving, Teenage Girl, Cute Girl, Holden Caulfield

Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: War, Swear To God, Volunteer, Atomic Bomb, Atomic War

I don't even like old cars. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Horse, Car, Literature, Equestrian, Old Car

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.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Goodbye, Hate, School, Catchers, Holden Caulfield

Money always ends up making you blue.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Money, Blue, Catchers, Holden Caulfield, Holden

It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Fun, Stuff, Sometimes, Holden Caulfield, Holden

I kept picturing all these little kids in this big field of rye... If they're running and they don't look where they're going, I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.

- J. D. Salinger

source: 'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951) ch. 22.

topic: Running, Inspiration, Kids, Catchers, Standing On The Edge

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.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Crazy, Sun, Afternoon, Catchers, Holden Caulfield

Take most people, they are crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, they are always talking about have many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that is even newer. I do not even like old cars. . . . I'd rather have a horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.

- J. D. Salinger

source: Catcher in the Rye (1951) ch. 17

topic: Horse, Crazy, Thinking, Gallons, New Car

There isn’t a nightclub in the world that you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get drunk. Or unless you’re with some girl that really knocks you out.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

topic: Girl, Long, Drunk, Holden Caulfield, Holden

If a body catch a body coming through the rye.

- J. D. Salinger

source: Catcher in the Rye (1951) ch. 22

topic: Body, Catchers, Holden, Holden Caulfield

Boy, 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?

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Death, Hope, Flower, Someone Dying, Someone Who Is Dying

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.

- J. D. Salinger

source: 'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951) ch. 1

topic: Truth, Childhood, Parent, Holden Caulfield, Holden

Its really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: People, Literature, Suitcases, Holden Caulfield, Holden

You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.

- J. D. Salinger

topic: Hands, Worried, Holden Caulfield, Holden

When I really worry about something, I don’t just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don’t go. I’m too worried to go. I don’t want to interrupt my worrying to go.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

topic: Worry, Want, Fool, Holden Caulfield

Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Giving, Ends, Give Me, Skates, Holden Caulfield

If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me.

- J. D. Salinger

source: J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

topic: Hate, One Thing, Ifs, Things I Hate, Holden Caulfield

Now...in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, ipods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.

- Harper Lee

topic: Book, Ipods, Phones, Empty Rooms, Holden Caulfield

Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it. And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.

- Harper Lee

topic: Book, Heart, Years, Empty Rooms, Heart Of Darkness

Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today. She's got on red go-go boots and a catholic school plaid skirt ... way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now...She's got on her typically very, very tight shirt. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body ... I know she's very good, and I'm not supposed to be critical of ESPN people, so I won't ... but Hannah Storm ... come on now! Stop! What are you doing? ... She's what I would call a Holden Caulfield fantasy at this point.

- Tony Kornheiser

topic: School, People, Catholic, Espn, Plaid

A Nation of Outsiders is smart, insightful, and politically astute. Grace Hale's analysis of the 'romance of the outsider' is necessary reading for anyone who has ever wondered about the meaning of our national obsession with 'authenticity'-as well as for anyone who might be curious about what Jerry Falwell and Holden Caulfield have in common.

- Beth Bailey

topic: Smart, Reading, Romance, Astute, Holden Caulfield

I remember realizing, when I did Little Women [1994], that that was the only time girls that age were being written about. It was always boys - from David Copperfield to Lord of the Flies to Holden Caulfield. There were never young women going through adolescence or teen years; there were only little girls.

- Winona Ryder

source: Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

topic: Girl, Boys, Years, Holden Caulfield, Holden

Holden Caulfield is the best character in literature, period.

- Josh Hutcherson

topic: Character, Literature, Holden, Best Character, Holden Caulfield

Jane Gallagher had wanted to know what time it was, but for some reason Holden Caulfield hadn't wanted Stradlater to tell her. When Stradlater refused to tell Holden Caulfieldwhether or not he had told Jane Gallagher what time it was, Holden Caulfield became enraged and attacked him in a fit or horological savagery, possibly because he was mentally ill and hated anyone byt him knowing what time it was

- Frank Portman

source: "King Dork". Book by Frank Portman, April 11, 2006.

topic: Knowing, Fit, Reason, Mentally Ill, Gallagher

I hit adolescence only to discover my autobiography had already been written; plagiarized, in fact, by a man named J.D. Salinger who, in appropriating to himself my inner mass of pain and confusion, had given me the unlikely name of Holden Caulfield.

- Stephen Metcalf

topic: Pain, Men, Names, Salinger, Holden Caulfield

Girlchild . . . unfolds a compelling, layered narrative told by a protagonist with a voice so fresh, original, and funny you'll be in awe. This novel rocks . . . In Girlchild Tupelo Hassman has created a character you'll never forget. Rory Dawn Hendrix of the Calle has as precocious and endearing a voice as Holden Caulfield of Central Park. When you finish this novel, your sorrow at turning the last page will be eased by your excitement at what this sassy, talented author will do next.

- Mameve Medwed

topic: Character, Sassy, Central Park, Endearing, Holden Caulfield

I'd never seen that look on another face before, had never identified it in another person. I'd only met with it in fiction. But everyone falls in love with Holden Caulfield when they're sixteen. They read Catcher in the Rye and don't feel so alone.

- Tiffanie DeBartolo

topic: Falling In Love, Looks, Fiction, Holden Caulfield, Holden