Happy new year! And happy birthday to two of the authors in my Top Ten: E.M. (Edward Morgan) Forster and J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger.

For the new year, here’s Salinger’s Zooey telling it like it is about this world:

“God damn it,” he said, “there are nice things in the world–and I mean nice things. We’re all such morons to get so sidetracked.”