- "Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely." (84)...."Wha's the matter with me?... Ain't I got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I am, anyways?"
- "Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is."
- "I seen hundreds 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 ******** 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."
- "No I couldn't do that. I had 'im to long"
- "I seen hundreds of men comme by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their backs an' that same damn thing in their head. Hundreds of 'em."
- "An' you ain't gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither"
- "With us it ain't like that. We got a future."
- "Hardly none of the guys ever travel together. I hardly never seen two guys travel together."
- "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 tale waved frantically."
- "She's gonna make a mess. They's gonna be a bad mess about her. She's a jail bait all set on the trigger."
- "I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody'd shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your Aunt Clara wouldn't like you running off by yourself, even if she is dead."
- "Lennie--if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here and hide in the brush" (16).
- "The rabbits we're gonna get, and I get to tend 'em, cut grass an' give 'em water, an' like that."
- "We could live offa the fatta the lag'"
- "The rabbits we're gonna get and I, I get to tend 'em."
- "Were gonna get a little place" (103)
- "I oughtta shoot that dog myself, George. I shouldnt oughtta let no stranger shoot my dog" (61)
- 'em." "Ever' six weeks or so," George continued, "them does would throw a litter so we'd have plenty rabbits to eat an' to sell. An' we'd keep a few pigeons to go flyin' around the win'mill like they done when I was a kid." He looked raptly at the wall over Lennie's head. "An' it'd be our own, an' nobody could can us. If we don't like a guy we can say, 'Get the hell out,' and by God he's got to do it. An' if a fren' come along, why we'd have an extra bunk, an' we'd say, 'Why don't you spen' the night?' an' by God he would. We'd have a setter dog and a couple stripe cats, but you gotta watch out them cats don't get the little rabbits." Lennie breathed hard. "You jus' let 'em try to get the rabbits. I'll break their******** necks. I'll . . . . I'll smash 'em with a stick." He subsided, grumbling to himself, threatening the future cats which might dare to disturb the future rabbits."
- "The swamper considered.... 'Well... tell you what. 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. You seen little guys like that, ain't you? Always scrappy?" (26)
- Theme of Companionship and Plight of the Migrant Worker