Original artwork, not a still
The Catcher in the Rye · 1951
Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Holden spends the whole book calling everyone phony, and in the last page he finds that telling the story has made him miss all of them, even the people he disliked. The line is a reluctant, half-joking confession that the lonely narrator is not as detached as he sounds. It is quoted by introverts and overshares alike, usually as a rueful warning about being too honest, and it is one of the novel's best known sentences.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Catcher in the RyeShow the scene
These are nearly the last words of The Catcher in the Rye, in Chapter 26. Holden Caulfield has finished telling the story of his wander through New York, ending with the rainy afternoon when he watched his little sister Phoebe ride the carousel in Central Park and felt happy. Narrating from a sanatorium in California, he says that his brother D.B. and a psychoanalyst there keep asking what he makes of it all. He admits he does not know, then notes that he misses even Stradlater, Ackley and Maurice, and gives this advice.
Sources (2)
- The Catcher in the Rye - WikiquoteChapter 26Reference checked
- The Catcher in the Rye - WikipediaPlot summaryReference checked
Context reviewed
