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

In nature two things do not occur-the wheel and good taste.

I think there must have been some other girl printed somewhere in his heart, for he was a man of love and his wife was not a woman to show her feelings.

I remember as a child reading or hearing the words 'The Great Divide' and being stunned by the glorious sound, a proper sound for the granite backbone of a continent. I saw in my mind escarpments rising into the clouds, a kind of natural Great Wall of China.

He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.

Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain.

If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.