# Quote — J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

> What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.

- Author: [J.D. Salinger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger.md)
- Book: [The Catcher in the Rye](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye#Chapter_1) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye/what-i-was

## More from this book

> My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway. I didn't care though. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye/my-hunting-hat.md)

> A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I'm going to apply myself when I go back to school next September. It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye/a-lot-of-people.md)

> D.B. asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling you about. I didn't know what the hell to say. If you want to know the truth, I don't know what I think about it. I'm sorry I told so many people about it. All I know about it is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jd-salinger/the-catcher-in-the-rye/d-b-asked-me-what.md)