What some people find in religion a writer may find in his craft...a kind of breaking through to glory.

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.

A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner.

Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.

Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion.

Why don't you go on west to California? There's work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there's always some kind of crop to work in. Why don't you go there?

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.