Important Quotations

Chapter One:

1. "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want." (George pg. 11-12) Analysis 1-1
2. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." (George pg. 13-14) Analysis 1-2

Chapter Two:

1. "Ain't many guys travel around together. I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other." (Slim, pg. 35) Analysis 2-1

Chapter Three:

1.  "I ain't got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time... 'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him." (George pg. 45) Analysis 3-1
2.  “S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing.” Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. “We’d just go to her,” George said. “We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say, ‘We’ll go to her,’ an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.” (George pg. 60-61) Analysis 3-2

Chapter Four:

1.  "A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or thinkin' or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin', an' he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so. Maybe if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here. I wasn't drunk. I don't know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an' then it would be all right. But I jus' don't know." (Crooks pg. 73) Analysis 4-1
2. "I seen hundereds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads... every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land." (Crooks pg. 74) Analysis 4-2

Chapter Five:

1. "Why do you got to get killed? You ain't so little as mice. I didn't bounce you hard... Now maybe George ain't gonna let me tend no rabbits if he fin's out you got killed." (Lennie, pg. 85) Analysis 5-1
2. "Maybe you guys better go. I ain't sure I want you in here no more. A colored man got to have some rights even if he don't like 'em." (Crooks, pg. 90)  Analysis 5-2

Chapter Six:

1. A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically. (pg. 99) Analysis 6-1
2. "Never you mind. A guy got to sometimes." (Slim, pg. 117)  Analysis 6-2