The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.

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

One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.

I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer -- and what trees and seasons smelled like -- how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.

Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man.

A man with a beard was always a little suspect anyway. You couldn't say you wore a beard because you liked a beard. People didn't like you for telling the truth. You had to say you had a scar so you couldn't shave.

There's a capacity for appetite... that a whole heaven and earth of cake can't satisfy