Of Mice and Men Quotes

Quote 1: "Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones." Chapter 1, pg. 2

Quote 2: "...and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws." Chapter 1, pg. 2

Quote 3: "You'd drink out of a gutter if you was thirsty." Chapter 1, pg. 3

Quote 4: "Slowly, like a terrier who doesn't want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again." Chapter 1, pg. 9

Quote 5: "'Well, we ain't got any,' George exploded. '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....An' whatta I got,' George went on furiously. 'I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.'" Chapter 1, pg. 11

Quote 6: "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." Chapter 1, pp. 13-14

Quote 7: "An' why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why." Chapter 1, pg. 14

Quote 8: "'Well,' said George, 'we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof...'" Chapter 1, pp. 14-15

Quote 9: "At about ten o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars." Chapter 2, pp. 17-18

Quote 10: "Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy." Chapter 2, pg. 26

Quote 11: "'Ain't many guys travel around together,' he mused. 'I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.'" Chapter 2, pg. 35

Quote 12: "Although there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunk house, inside it was dusk." Chapter 3, pg. 38

Quote 13: "Made me seem God damn smart alongside of him." Chapter 3, pg. 40

Quote 14: "He don't give nobody else a chance to win--" Chapter 3, pg. 44

Quote 15: "Well, you ain't bein' kind to him keepin' him alive." Chapter 3, pg. 45

Quote 16: "Carl's right, Candy. That dog ain't no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple." Chapter 3, pg. 45

Quote 17: "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me. But they won't do nothing like that. I won't have no place to go, an' I can't get no more jobs." Chapter 3, pg. 60

Quote 18: "We could live offa the fatta the lan'." Chapter 3, pg. 57

Quote 19: "I could build a smoke house like the one gran'pa had..." Chapter 3, pg. 57

Quote 20: "An' we'd keep a few pigeons to go flyin' around the win'mill like they done when I was a kid." Chapter 3, pg. 58

Quote 21: "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog." Chapter 3, pg. 61

Quote 22: "Lennie covered his face with huge paws and bleated with terror." Chapter 3, pg. 63

Quote 23: "I seen it over an' over-a guy talkin' to another guy and it don't make no difference if he don't hear or understand. The thing is, they're talkin', or they're settin' still not talkin'. It don't make no difference, no difference....It's just the talking." Chapter 4, pg. 71

Quote 24: "Want me to tell ya what'll happen? They'll take ya to the booby hatch. They'll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog." Chapter 4, pg. 72

Quote 25: "'A guy needs somebody-to be near him.' He whined, 'A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.'" Chapter 4, pg. 72

Quote 26: "Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land." Chapter 4, pg. 74

Quote 27: "Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely." Chapter 5, pg. 86

Quote 28: "He pawed up the hay until it partly covered her." Chapter 5, pg. 92

Quote 29: "As happens sometimes, 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." Chapter 5, pg. 93

Quote 30: "-I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would." Chapter 5, pg. 94

Quote 31: "Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun." Chapter 6, pg. 99

Quote 32: "No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's a thing I want ya to know." Chapter 6, pg. 106

Quote 33: "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta." Chapter 6, pg. 106

Quote 34: "The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again." Chapter 6, pg. 106

Quote 35: "'Never you mind,' said Slim. 'A guy got to sometimes.'" Chapter 6, pg. 107