 While he was living with Maynard , Salinger continued to write in a disciplined fashion , a few hours every morning . According to Maynard , by 1972 he had completed two new novels . In a rare 1974 interview with The New York Times , he explained : " There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write . I love to write . But I write just for myself and my own pleasure . " According to Maynard , he saw publication as " a damned interruption " . In her memoir , Margaret Salinger describes the detailed filing system her father had for his unpublished manuscripts : " A red mark meant , if I die before I finish my work , publish this ' as is , ' blue meant publish but edit first , and so on . " A neighbor said that Salinger told him that he had written 15 unpublished novels . 
