Father and son are natural enemies and each is happier and more secure in keeping it that way.

People need responsibility. They resist assuming it, but they cannot get along without it.

The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.

But Doc had one mental habit he could not get over. When anyone asked a question, Doc thought he wanted to know the answer.

He had said, "I am a man," and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god. It meant that Kino would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana, in her woman's soul, knew that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it. And yet it was this thing that made him a man, half insane and half god, and Juana had need of a man; she could not live without a man.

I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied.

The camera need not be a cold mechanical device. Like the pen, it is as good as the man who uses it. It can be the extension of mind and heart.