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.
– J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield in Chapter 22. The most famous passage in Salinger’s novel, which gives it its title. It speaks of Holden’s wish and his fantasy to be the rescuer of all the children who might suffer in their lives.