I said I'm not going back to school. You can do what you want to do, but I'm not going back to school, she said. So shut up. It was the first time she ever told me to shut up. It sounded terrible. God, it sounded terrible.

“I said I’m not going back to school. You can do what you want to do, but I’m not going back to school,” she said. “So shut up.” It was the first time she ever told me to shut up. It sounded terrible. God, it sounded terrible.

– J. D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye. Chapter 25, Phoebe utters these defiant words to Holden as he refuses to let her leave town with him. He is upset that he has pushed Phoebe to the point of telling him to shut up, a form of profanity. Children’s innocence should be protected, he believes, and he has failed to do this with Phoebe, which troubles him greatly.

Catcher in the Rye Quotes