J. D. Salinger People Quotations

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

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

He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.

They didn't act like people and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good.

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. Sometimes, I act a lot older than I am--I really do. But people never notice it. People never notice anything.

If I were God, I certainly wouldn't want people to love me sentimentally. It's too unreliable.

In the first place, you’re way off when you start railing at things and people instead of at yourself.

People never notice anything.

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

I have scars on my hands from touching certain people.

People are always ruining things for you.

I have scars on my hands from touching certain people…Certain heads, certain colours and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me.

You don't know how to talk to people you don't like. Don't love, really. You can't live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes.

You know, I'm the only one in this family who has no problems, . . . And you know why? Because any time I'm feeling blue, or puzzled , what I do, I just invite a few people to come visit me in the bathroom, and--well, we iron things out together, that's all.

Don't tell people what you are thinking, or you will miss them terribly when you are away.

I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? 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.

People are mostly hot to have a discussion when you're not.

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

People always clap for the wrong reasons.

If you can't, or won't, think of Seymour, then you go right ahead and call in some ignorant psychoanalyst. You just do that. You just call in some analyst who's experienced in adjusting people to the joys of television, and Life magazine every Wednesday, and European travel, and the H-bomb, and Presidential elections, and the front page of the Times, and God knows what else that's gloriously normal.

People never think anything is anything really. I'm getting goddam sick of it.

Some people you shouldn't kid, even if they deserve it.

It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true.

It was just terrible! And the worst part was, I knew what a bore I was being, I knew how I was depressing people, or even hurting their feelings- but I just couldn't stop! I just could not stop picking!

If sentiment doesn't ultimately make fibbers of some people, their natural abominable memories almost certainly will.

People never believe you.

Then again you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.'