Poetry is the mathematics of writing and closely kin to music.

It is strange how a man believes he can think better in a special place. I have such a place, have always had it, but I know it isn't thinking I do there, but feeling and experiencing and remembering. It's a safety place. Everyone must have one, although I never heard a man tell of it.

It's almost impossible to read a fine thing without wanting to do a fine thing.

Thou mayest rule over sin,' Lee. That's it. I do not believe all men are destroyed. I can name you a dozen who were not, and they are the ones the world lives by. It is true of the spirit as it is true of battles — only the winners are remembered.

I don’t mind getting smacked on the chin. I just don’t want to get nibbled to death. There’s a difference.

Again it might have been the American tendency in travel. One goes, not so much to see but to tell afterward.

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.