A new country seems to follow a pattern. First come the openers, strong and brave and rather childlike. They can take care of themselves in a wilderness, but they are naive and helpless against men, and perhaps that is why they went out in the first place. When the rough edges are worn off the new land, businessmen and lawyers come in to help with the development---to solve problems of ownership, usually by removing the temptations to themselves. And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living. And culture can be on any level, and is. The Church and the whorehouse arrived in the Far West simultaneously.

— John Steinbeck

An' I got to thinkin', on'y it wasn't thinkin', it was deeper down than thinkin'.

— John Steinbeck

A number of years ago I had some experience with being alone. For two succeeding years I was alone each winter for eight months at a stretch in the Sierra Nevada mountains on Lake Tahoe. I was the caretaker on a summer estate during the winter months when it was snowed in. And I made some observations then. As time went on I found that my reactions thickened. Ordinarily I am a whistler. I stopped whistling. I stopped conversing with my dogs, and I believe that the subtleties of feeling began to disappear until finally I was on a pleasure-pain basis. Then it occurred to me that the delicate shades of feeling, of reaction, are the result of communication, and without such communication they tend to disappear. A man with nothing to say has no words. Can its reverse be true- a man who has no one to say anything to has no words as he has no need for words? ... Only through imitation do we develop toward originality.

— John Steinbeck

An unbeliever truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it, and it's usually crucifixion.

— John Steinbeck

Any man of reasonable intelligence can make money if that's what he wants. Mostly it's women or clothes or admiration he really wants, and they deflect him.

— John Steinbeck

Anything that just costs money is cheap.

— John Steinbeck

Are cats strange animals or do they so resemble us that we find them curious as we do monkeys?

— John Steinbeck

A reputation for money is almost as negotiable as money itself.

— John Steinbeck

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

— John Steinbeck

As sometimes happens, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.

— John Steinbeck