“It's one of those places that are supposed to be very sophisticated and all, and the phonies are coming in the window.”

“I was surrounded by phonies...They were coming in the goddam window.”

“One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You should've seen the way he did with my roommate's parents. I mean if a boy's mother was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody's father was one of those guys that wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old Haas would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he'd go talk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else's parents. I can't stand that stuff. It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills”

“When she was done whispering in the mike and being cute as hell, they'd sing a song half in English and half in French and drive all the phonies in the place mad with joy.”

“It's full of phonies and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a golden Cadillac...”

“Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.”

“If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.”