John Steinbeck

A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.

The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path or the breath caught at sight of a pretty girl or a fingernail nicked in the garden soil.

Ah, the prayers of the millions, how they must fight and destroy each other on their way to the throne of God.

I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move.

I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments

Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.

The people say that the two seemed to be removed from human experience; that they had gone through pain and had come out on the other side.

For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.

The fields were fruitful, and starving men moved on the roads.

All great and precious things are lonely.

People like you to be something, preferably what they are.

But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him... or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.

It would be good to live in a perpetual state of leave-taking, never to go nor to stay, but to remain suspended in that golden emotion of love and longing; to be loved without satiety.

He can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure.

But you can't start over Only a boy can start over You and me Why, we're all that's been

Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes it'll on'y be one.

Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.

How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?