J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

Postato il di Abele Longo
Per J.D. Salinger, Roberto Matarazzo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Catcher in the Rye:

 I don’t even know what I was running for – I guess I just felt like it. 

 
*

I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.  It’s awful.  If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera.  It’s terrible. 

*
It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road. 

*
In my mind, I’m probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. 

  *
There isn’t any night club in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get drunk.  Or unless you’re with some girl that really knocks you out. 
 
*
“Take most people, they’re crazy about cars.  They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they’re always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that’s even newer.  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? 

*
“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.” 

*
“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.” 

5 risposte a "J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)"

  5. il giovane holden lo lessi una vita fa (è passato almeno un quarto di secolo!!). oggi, a distanza di tempo, mi rendo conto che m’ha segnato più “un giorno ideale per i pesci banana” che il romanzo-icona di salinger (forse dovrei rileggerlo, chissà).
    ps: un saluto a idea vaganteresa (se è la stessa)

    "Mi piace"

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