"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."
"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."
"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 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."
In memory of J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010
Author of one of the great American novels — Catcher in the Rye
The Sun Messenger and The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1972-1975: In memory of the paper routes that earned me the money to be able to afford the Cliff's Notes for "The Catcher in the Rye." In fact, I still don't remember what the book was about. I need some help here. Did Salinger write a novel about Ray Fosse working in a bread factory?
It's a shame, I suppose, that I have to get the news from a sports blog, but thank you for letting at least me know. Franny and Zooey was the one that influenced me the most ….
Before I saw the attribution, I recognized the passages.
Thank you, Pat. It isn't often a sportswriter quotes Holden Caulfield.