If we could learn even a little to like ourselves, maybe our cruelties and angers might melt away.
John SteinbeckA study of animal communities has this advantage: they are merely what they are, for anyone to see who will and can look clearly; they cannot complicate the picture by worded idealisms, by saying one thing and being another; here the struggle is unmasked and the beauty is unmasked.
John SteinbeckI 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.
John SteinbeckI think today if we forbade our illiterate children to touch the wonderful things of our literature, perhaps they might steal them and find secret joy.
John Steinbeck