East of Eden

by John Steinbeck

And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.

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Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good.

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“There’s a capacity for appetite,” Samuel said, “that a whole heaven and earth of cake can’t satisfy.”

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If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule—a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting—only the deeply personal and familiar.”

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“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.

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