Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.

He never forgot anything but he never bothered to arrange his memories. -Hazel, Cannery Row

Our Father who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys. Virtues and graces and laziness and zest. Our Father who art in nature.

Strength and success; they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it.

I can still tend the rabbits, George? I didn't mean no harm, George.

There's an awful lot of inactive kindness which is nothing but laziness, not wanting any trouble, confusion, or effort.

A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.