Catcher in the Rye Quotes

"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."

Mr. Spencer

"Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake...That's a deer shooting hat."

Ackley

"This is a people shooting hat...I shoot people in this hat."

Holden

"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."

Holden

"'I'm just going through a phase right now. Everybody goes through phases and all, don't they?'"

Holden

"I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot."

Holden

"Sleep tight, ya morons!"

Holden

"Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours."

Holden

Who gets fixated on the fish in the lagoon?

Horowitz, the cab driver

Who invites Holden to join her and her Navy date?

Lillian

Who hangs out at the dingy hotel bar hoping to meet celebrities?

Bernice, Marty, and Laverne

Who refuses to have drinks with Holden, claiming she needs her beauty sleep, but offers to meet up with him the following day?

Faith Cavendish

"You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?"

Holden

Who is irritated that Holden, a complete stranger, called her?

Faith Cavendish

Who asks Holden to write his essay for him?

Stradlater

Who complains about the essay he asked Holden to write for him?

Stradlater

"Interested in a little tail t'night?"

Maurice

"If you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin. I really am. I've had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I've never got around to it yet."

Holden

Who calls Holden a "crumb-bum"?

Sunny

Who tries to convince Holden to sleep with her?

Sunny

Who often uses the word "grand"?

Sally Hayes

Who advises Holden to get a more stylish haircut?

Sally Hayes

Who talks to Holden about Romeo and Juliet?

The nuns

"'If a body catch a body coming through the rye.'"

Little boy on the street

"It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques."

Holden

Who's currently dating a foreign sculptress in her late thirties?

Carl Luce

Who gets annoyed by Holden's "typical Caulfield questions" about sex?

Carl Luce

Who advises Holden to see a psychoanalyst?

Carl Luce

Who chatters about the Christmas play she's going to be in?

Phoebe

Who talks about the movie she saw that afternoon?

Phoebe

Who talks about a boy from school who's bullying her?

Phoebe

Who asks why Holden's home on Saturday when he's supposed to arrive on Wednesday?

Phoebe

"Daddy'll kill you."

Phoebe

Who demands that Holden name one thing he likes, "just one thing"?

Phoebe

"You can't even think of one thing."

Phoebe

"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'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."

Holden

Who is worried that Holden is headed for a fall?

Mr. Antolini

Who fears that Holden is going to end up alienated and hating everyone by the time he's thirty?

Mr. Antolini

Who gives Holden a bunch of advice, most of it to the effect that he needs to stick with school and come to realize that he's "not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior"?

Mr. Antolini

"I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . . 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. . . . So they gave up looking."

Mr. Antolini

Who grills Holden about being kicked out of Pencey and what his future now holds?

Mr. Spencer

Who reads aloud Holden's essay about Ancient Egyptians?

Mr. Spencer

Who complains about having to go into town with Mal?

Ackley

Who calls Jane Gallagher "Jean"?

Stradlater

Who, after punching Holden in the face, worries that he hurt Holden and that he'd get in trouble?

Stradlater

Who, when Holden lies to her about having just seen Gary Cooper, tells others that she caught a glimpse of Gary Cooper as well?

Bernice

Who forces Holden to give him five dollars?

Maurice

Who goes ice skating with Holden?

Sally Hayes

Who points out that Holden's dreams about running away together and escaping from society by living on their own in a cabin are ridiculous?

Sally Hayes

Who grows angry at Holden's question about the ducks in the lake?

Horowitz

Who reminds Holden angrily that Allie is dead?

Phoebe

Who points out that Holden has misheard the words of the song about the rye—the actual lyric is "If a body meet a body coming through the rye"?

Phoebe

Who is shocked that Holden has been kicked out of another school and invites Holden to stay the night at his house?

Mr. Antolini

Who mentions his debate class in which students were penalized for digressing from their subject, and argues that digressions are more interesting?

Holden

Who points out that digressions are often distracting, and that sometimes it is more interesting and appropriate to stick to the topic?

Mr. Antolini

Who arrives at the museum with a suitcase and begs Holden to take her with him?

Phoebe

"You're a student - whether the idea appeals to you or not. You're in love with knowledge. And I think you'll find, once you get past all the Mr. Vineses [...] you're going to start getting closer and closer - that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for it - to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart."

Mr. Antolini

"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."

Mr. Antolini

"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."

Mr. Antolini

"Well. He's a very sensitive boy. He's really never been a terribly good mixer with other boys. Perhaps he takes things a little more seriously than he should at his age."

Mrs. Morrow

"You keep it. Keep it for me...Please."

Phoebe