Reclusive author J.D. Salinger passed away yesterday at the age of 91. Before his self-imposed exile (partly because he did not like the fame that accompanied his literary success), Salinger was considered one of the most important post-World War II American authors. His collected works include with incredibly popular and influential novel, The Catcher in the Rye, for which he is still best known.
Salinger’s critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Nine Stories, helped shape later writers such as Philip Roth and John Updike and were noted for their sharp social observations and untraditional story structure and language.
Salinger was known as much for his mysteriousness and closely guarded privacy as he was for his books. He was notorious for avoiding interaction with the press and he didn’t publish again after the mid 1960’s. For more complete overview of Salinger’s life and work, check out the obituary from the New York Times.
And for those who care, below is a collection of some of my favorite Salinger quotes:
- “He had a theory, Walt did, that 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.”
- “I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”
- “I don’t exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.”
- “It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.”
- “If I were God, I certainly wouldn’t want people to love me sentimentally. It’s too unreliable.”
[Photo Credit: Wikipedia]
