28 Striking Quotes from The Catcher in the Rye
Discover the best quotes from The Catcher in the Rye about phonies and growing up.
The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by American author J. D. Salinger, first published in 1951.
Although primarily intended for adults, the novel and its protagonist Holden Caulfield have become favorites among teenagers and young adult readers. It deals with angst, rebellion, society, love, loss, and alienation.
In the decades since its publication and despite certain controversies and language, The Catcher in the Rye has become an all-time classic and one of the most popular “coming of age” novels.
It was also included in the lists of the 100 best English-language novels by Time Magazine and Modern Library.
Below are the best and most important The Catcher in the Rye quotes with chapter and page numbers.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 and 2
I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.Chapter 1, Page 7
Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right – I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.Chapter 2, Page 12
I don’t give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am – I really do – but people never notice it. People never notice anything.Chapter 2, Page 13
Grand. There’s a word I really hate. It’s a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.Chapter 2, Page 14
Chapter 3 and 6
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.Chapter 3, Page 25
Chapter 7 and 10
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. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.Chapter 10, page 95
Chapter 12
I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.Chapter 12, Page 114
Chapter 16
Certain things they 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.Chapter 16, Page 158
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Chapter 17
If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.Chapter 17, Page 162
If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don’t watch it, you start showing off. And then you’re not as good any more.Chapter 17, Page 164
Chapter 18 and 20
Every time you mention some guy that’s strictly a bastard – very mean, or very conceited and all – and when you mention it to the girl, she’ll tell you he has an inferiority complex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn’t keep him from being a bastard, in my opinion.Chapter 18, Page 176
It’s not too bad when the sun’s out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out.Chapter 20, Page 202
Chapter 21 and 22
It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.Chapter 21, Page 205
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.Chapter 22, Page 224
Chapter 24
Lots of time you don’t know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn’t interest you most.Chapter 24, Page 240
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.Chapter 24, Page 244
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.Chapter 24, page 246
Chapter 25 and 26
If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “F*** you” signs in the world. It’s impossible.Chapter 25, Page 262
That’s the whole trouble. You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “F*** you” right under your nose.Chapter 25, Page 264
FAQs
The first line of The Catcher in the Rye is, "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."
Among other things, Holden Caulfield always says, "I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though."
The last quote in The Catcher in the Rye is, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."