Morning is best when it begins with the last hours of night. ...Enough of culture's hours. I am a peasant. Enough of feasting. I want hunger. Enough … - William Saroyan

للحظة أبدية كان هو كل الأشياء فى آن : الطائر والسمكة والحيوان القارض والزاحف والإنسان ، وكان أمامه محيط من أثر الإنسان يتموج فى الظلام بلا نهاية. احترقت المدينة ، وتمردت الجماهير المحتشدة ، والأرض تدور مبتعدة وحين أدرك أنه يفعل مثلها ، أدار وجهه الضائع إلى السماء الخالية وأصبح بلا حلم ولا حياة ، لقد اكتمل.

وليم سارويان
(الشاب الجرئ على العقلة الطائرة)

A man's ethnic identity has more to do with a personal awareness than with geography.

"When I was fifteen and had quit school forever, I went to work in a vineyard near Sanger with a number of Mexicans, one of whom was only a year or two older than myself, an earnest boy named Felipe. One gray, dismal, cold, dreary day in January, while we were pruning muscat vines, I said to this boy, simply in order to be talking, "If you had your wish, Felipe, what would you want to be? A doctor, a farmer, a singer, a painter, a matador, or what?" Felipe thought a minute, and then he said, "Passenger." This was exciting to hear, and definitely something to talk about at some length, which we did. He wanted to be a passenger on anything that was going anywhere, but most of all on a ship."