- Joanna: The job of an agent is to open up opportunities for their clients, but, when it came to Salinger, the logic was reversed. We had to shield him from the outside world, bolstering his reputation as a complicated recluse.
- Joanna: There's just other things I want to do. And I'm afraid that if I don't do them now, I never will.
- [first lines]
- Joanna: [narrating] I grew up in a quiet suburban town just north of New York. On special occasions , my dad would take me into the city, and we would go and get dessert at the Waldorf or the Plaza. I loved watching the people around us. They seemed to have interesting lives. I wanted to be one of them. I wanted to write novels and speak five languages and travel. I didn't want to be ordinary. I wanted to be extraordinary.
- Joanna: Salinger's nothing like I thought, nothing. He's brutal, brutal and funny. And I love it. I love Franny the most. There's that moment when the guy in Princeton is waiting for Franny at the train station, and he has the letter in his pocket, Franny's letter. And he's read it a thousand times, he knows it by heart. But when she gets off the train and asks, "Did you get my letter?" He says, "Which letter?"
- Joanna: We know you can type, hooray, but have you ever used a dictaphone? At ease. It can be tricky at first, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it.
- Margaret: I'm sure you've heard that he's crazy or senile or a misanthrope, all lies. He's not the problem. It's these people who relentlessly call for his address, his phone number, asking to be put in touch with him. Or, even with me. Reporters, students, university deans, producers. They can be persuasive, manipulative, but you must never ever give out his address. Do you understand?
- Joanna: All right, as you can see, we have a relaxed, cordial environment. We ask that you don't wear dungarees, sneakers, T-shirts, sweatshirts, especially the kind with hoods. No open-toed shoes, but it's perfectly fine to wear trousers if you're a woman, and no need to wear stockings in the summer. Bare legs are perfectly fine.
- Margaret: But, do you type on a typewriter? It's very different from typing on one of those computers.
- Joanna: As you know, I believe that computers make work rather than alleviate it. But I agreed to install one in the office on a trial basis because...
- Max: It came in an elegant black.
- Joanna: Because, Hugh discovered that people, I don't know who these people are or why they don't have more important things to do with their lives, but people have been publishing whole Salinger stories on their personal e-webs.
- Hugh: Web blogs.
- Joanna: Web blogs, ridiculous. This is blatant copyright infringement. And we're going to have to scour the worldwide web to put an end to it. And that is *all* the computer is to be used for.
- Daniel: Sorry to interrupt. Just passing through. Don't mean to cause a fuss.
- Joanna: We can turn it off now.
- Max: Uh, it's already off.
- Joanna: Okay, good. And then maybe the little coat that goes over it, I've seen it in pictures. Thank you, Max.
- Margaret: Tabs wrong, margins wrong, proper names wrong, really, everything wrong. You can start retyping today.
- Joanna: So Salinger doesn't get any of his mail?
- Hugh: Not one. You shred them in the shredder.
- Margaret: You should always read them.
- Hugh: Yes, indeed.
- Margaret: Just in case.
- Hugh: Just in case.
- Joanna: In case of what?
- Margaret: We've been extra careful since the Mark David Chapman thing.
- Hugh: John Lennon's assassin. When the police arrived at the Dakota, they found Chapman calmly sitting on the sidewalk reading, "Catcher In The Rye".
- Rachel Cusk: [to Joanna] I thought all publishing assistants were writing novels at their desk.
- Daniel: If you can write a novel at your desk while fetching coffee for a tyrant like Margaret, good luck.
- Rachel Cusk: Well, you really have to love it. You have to want it more than anything in the entire world. More than a boyfriend or a closet full of pretty dresses, or a fancy job that makes everyone jealous. You need to be okay with saying no when you're invited to a party, and you really need to be okay with having your mother and father hate you.
- Joanna: I grew up reading The New Yorker, following my father's ritual. He would start with the movie reviews and then turn to the Talk of the Town, and then the features. In college, everyone was into The New Yorker.
- Joanna: You'll soon find out that young women are often held to double standards when it comes to success. You need to prove to yourself and to your peers that you do not need special treatment.
- Joanna: if you want to uphold the spirit of Holden, try not to care too much about how people judge you. This might mean being more humble, but it's the only way.
- Joanna: You're right. Can't go around revealing your goddamn emotions to the world. But, if you can't reveal your emotions to the world, then what are you supposed to do with them? How do you go on?
- Joanna: You think women don't look at other men? We do. We even look at other women. We just don't drool while we do it.
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