Maybe it's true that we are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over the squeezed-out soil.

It was a day as different from other days as dogs are from cats and both of them from chrysanthemums or tidal waves or scarlet fever.

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

I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.

Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ...Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

I'm back with my own kind of people here now, the bums and drinkers and no goods and it is a fine thing.