"I wouldn’t exactly describe her as strictly beautiful. She knocked me out, though."
— The Catcher in the Rye, 1951 (via parvus-ursa)
"[J.D.] Salinger’s genius was to end his story and not yet end it, to give the reader a sense of closure while leaving the future mysterious and alive. This is why Holden has become, for many readers, eternal."
— “There Will be No Stories in Heaven” / Tom Grimes / The Writer’s Notebook (Tin House)
(Source: gabrielle-gantz)
Sixteen-year-old boys
I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture. That’s what happened with your girlfriend, Paloma - she stooped to pick up her purse and your heart flew out of you.
Junot Diaz, “Miss Lora”
"My big trouble is, I always sort of think whoever I’m necking is a pretty intelligent person. It hasn’t got a goddam thing to do with it, but I keep thinking it anyway."
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Example:
The Catcher in the Rye
Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once? I am one of those melodramatic fools, neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it.
(Green Day, “Basket Case”)
Ha!
"But this damn article I started reading made me feel almost worse. It was all about hormones.It described how you should look, your face and eyes and all, if your hormones were in good shape, and I didn’t look that way at all. I looked exactly like the guy in the article with lousy hormones."
—
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
I just ate a big danish for breakfast, and I feel exactly like the girl in the commercial who fails to choose a Nutrigrain bar over a gooey pastry in the morning and is then fated for the rest of the day to make unhealthy choices in bad lighting with a sour expression on her face while her better self who did choose the Nutrigrain bar flits happily through the sunshine in the next frame over.
Time to take the elevator one flight to get a big ol’ cup of coffee.
