Girls. You never know what they're going to think.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 18

All these angels start coming out of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place, and the whole bunch of them - thousands of them - singing "Come All Ye Faithful" like mad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I can't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying crucifixes all over the stage. When they all finished and started going out the boxes again, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette of something. I saw it with old Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes and all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 18

Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 18

People never give your message to anybody.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 20

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.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 20

When the weather's nice, my parents go out quite frequently and stick a bunch of flowers on old Allie's grave. I went with them a couple of times, but I cut it out. In the first place, I don't enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery. Surrounded by dead guys and tombstones and all. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but twice - twice - we were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner - everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it. I know it's only his body and all that's in the cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn't stand it anyway. I just wished he wasn't there.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 20

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 21

'You know that song, "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye"?...'
'It's "If a body meet a body coming through the rye"!' old Phoebe said. "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield and Phoebe in Chapter 22

Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 22

I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don't honestly know what kind.... It may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.' Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don't know.
The Catcher in the Rye
Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24

This fall I think you're riding for - it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.
The Catcher in the Rye
Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24

Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them - if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.
The Catcher in the Rye
Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24

If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'Fuck you' signs in the world. It's impossible.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 25

I was the only one left in the tomb then. I sort of liked it, in a way. It was so nice and peaceful.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 25

That's the nice thing about carrousels, they always play the same songs.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 25

All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 25

I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around . . . It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 25

Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield in Chapter 26, closing words of book