The Catcher in the Rye
Critique • Quotes
First editionFirst publication
1951
Literature form
Novel
Genres
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 76,000 words
Notable lines
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.
— First line
I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.
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.
I don't even like old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.
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? Nobody.
Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes
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