The impulse of the American woman to geld her husband and castrate her sons is very strong.

You got to live before you can afford to die.

He never forgot anything but he never bothered to arrange his memories. -Hazel, Cannery Row

It was too nerve-wracking, a shocking spectacle, like seeing an old, calm friend go insane.

The dairy man had a Ph.D. in mathematics, and he must have had some training in philosophy. He liked what he was doing and he didn't want to be somewhere else - one of the few contented people I met in my whole journey.

Death was a friend, and sleep was Death's brother.

And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.