Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor.

And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.

I wrote The Grapes of Wrath in one hundred days, but many years of preparation preceded it.

But whereas a puppy will cringe away or roll on its back, groveling, a little boy may cover his shyness with nonchalance, with bravado, or with secrecy. And once a boy has suffered rejection, he will find rejection even where it does not exist-or, worse, will draw it forth from people simply by expecting it.

There's something desirable about anything you're used to as opposed to something you're not.

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness? You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something when you compare and contrast it to something worse.

I'll want to hear,' Samuel said. 'I eat stories like grapes.