J.D. Salinger — People

A dried pink flower and leaf rest on a small wooden ledge. — Original artwork

And I don't just mention it, for God's sake, to show you I was once an Emotional Young Person Just Like Yourself.

J.D. Salinger

A glass jar containing one green marble beside a small brush and scattered scraps on a white surface. — Original artwork

Certain things 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

A red knitted mitten rests on a snowy windowsill overlooking winter trees. — Original artwork

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

J.D. Salinger

Crooked smiling theatrical mask on two blank sealed envelopes, maroon/copper — Original artwork

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

J.D. Salinger

Painterly rain-streaked window overlooking wet pavement, with a small cup and plant on the sill. — Original artwork

I prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone…which is the one New York prayer that rarely gets lost or delayed in channels, and in no time at all everything I touched turned to solid loneliness.

J.D. Salinger

A bundle of worn blue-gray envelopes tied with twine on a slate-green surface. — Original artwork

I wish…you could read letters you wrote 46 years ago. It is very painful reading.

J.D. Salinger

A small carved wooden horse with a knotted rope mane and a comb beside it on green felt. — Original artwork

Life is a gift horse in my opinion.

J.D. Salinger

A smoking cigarette rests across a martini glass beside an ashtray and small leafy sprig in warm window light. — Original artwork

She looked nice, smoking. She inhaled and all, but she didn't wolf the smoke down, the way most women around her age do. She had a lot of charm. She had quite a lot of sex appeal, too, if you really want to know.

J.D. Salinger

A black rotary telephone with a stretched coiled cord and a small brass megaphone beside it on yellow cloth. — Original artwork

She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she reached puberty.

J.D. Salinger

An olive-green rotary telephone and a small vase sit on a wooden stool, with the handset off its cradle and a curled cord hanging down. — Original artwork

The handpiece lay detached from its catch, waiting for Franny. It looked almost as dependent as a human being for some acknowledgment of its existence.

J.D. Salinger

A seedling in a clay pot beside a watering can and a toy sword lying flat on a pale blue background. — Original artwork

The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

J.D. Salinger

A carved wooden hand gripping a thorny rose stem, with a ripe peach lying next to it on a sage green surface. — Original artwork

You can’t just walk out on the results of your own hankerings.

J.D. Salinger