Greatest Literature banner

Of Mice and Men

Critique • Quotes • At the movies

Of Mice and Men first editionFirst edition
Publication details ▽ Publication details △

First publication
1937

Literature form
Novella

Genre
Literary

Writing language
English

Author's country
United States

Length
Approx. 34,500 words

Notable lines

A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.

— First lines

"S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody—to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.

 

"Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other."

 

"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."

 

"I seen hunderds 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. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' 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. Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head."

 

"Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?".

— Last line

 

Critique • Quotes • At the movies