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The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it.

— J. D. Salinger Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)

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More quotes by J. D. Salinger

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

A Girl I Knew (1948)

The religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.

Franny and Zooey (1961)

How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose?

Franny and Zooey (1961)

Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They're always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.

Teddy (1953)

Seymour once said that all we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next.

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)

All J. D. Salinger quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: J. D. Salinger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.