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

I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

I don't think there is a single sentence in this whole book [East of Eden] that does not either develop character, carry on the story or provide necessary background.

I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security - out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction.

Orange and speckled and fluted nudibranchs slide gracefully over the rocks, their skirts waving like the dresses of Spanish dancers.

To be alive at all is to have scars.

We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.