Hayden Gilbert’s Reviews > East of Eden > Status Update

“A war comes always to someone else…And just as war is always for somebody else, so it is also true that someone else always gets killed. And Mother of God! that wasn’t true either.”

“It’s one of the great fallacies, it seems to me,” said Lee, “that time gives much of anything but years and sadness to a man.”
“And memory.”
“Yes, memory. Without that, time would be unarmed against us.”

“…P.S. Charles, I never hated you no matter what. I always loved you because you were my brother.”

“This ending was no deterrent. No one who is young is ever going to be old.”

“The Irish do have a despairing quality of gaiety, but they have also a dour and brooding ghost that rides on their shoulders and peers in on their thoughts. Let them laugh too loudly, it sticks a long finger down their throats. They condemn themselves before they are charged, and this makes them defensive always.”

“I always found in myself a dread of west and a love of east.”