“
What?" I said to old Phoebe. She said something me, but I didn't hear her.
"You can't even think of one thing."
"Yes, I can. Yes, I can."
"Well, do it, then."
"I like Allie," I said. "And I like doing what I'm doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking, and thinking about stuff, and-"
"Allie's dead - You always say that! If somebody's dead and everything, and in Heaven, then it isn't really-"
"I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake - especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all."
Old Phoebe didn't say anything. When she can't think of anything to say, she doesn't say a goddam word.
"Anyway, I like it now," I said. "I mean right now. Sitting here with you and just chewing the fat and horsing -"
"That isn't anything really!"
"It is so something really! Certainly, it is. Why the hell isn't it? People never think anything is anything really, I'm getting goddam sick of it.
”
”
J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)