You can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.

He said, "I am a man," and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god.

I have noticed that there is no dissatisfaction like that of the rich. Feed a man, clothe him, put him in a good house, and he will die of despair.

Books are the best friends you can have; they inform you, and entertain you, and they don't talk back.

When you know a friend is there you do not go to see him. Then he's gone and you blast your conscience to shreds that you did not see him.

I seen it over an' over—a guy talkin' to another guy and it don't make no difference if he don't hear or understand. The thing is, they're talkin', or they're settin' still not talkin'. It don't make no difference, no difference. [...] George can tell you screwy things, and it don't matter. It's just the talking. It's just bein' with another guy. That's all.

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.