“Luck, you see, brings bitter friends.”

“You're not buying only junk, you're buying junked lives. And more - you'll see - you're buying bitterness.”

“It is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with Gods or the gods.”

“Intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over...”

“If you want to keep a friend, never test him.”

“But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me - why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man - he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that's us; and when the tractor hit the house, that's us until we're dead. To California or any place - every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day - the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they'll all walk together, and there'll be a dead terror from it.”

“Lanser said, "There are no peaceful people, when will you learn it? There are no friendly people, can't you understand that?”