Quotes from The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Wallace Stegner ·  563 pages

Rating: (5.9K votes)


“There was somewhere, if you knew where to find it, some place where money could be made like drawing water from a well, some Big Rock Candy Mountain where life was effortless and rich and unrestricted and full of adventure and action, where something could be had for nothing.”
― Wallace Stegner, quote from The Big Rock Candy Mountain


“People, he had said, were always being looked at as points, and they ought to be looked at as lines. There weren't any points, it was false to assume that a person ever was anything. He was always becoming something, always changing, always continuous and moving, like the wiggly line on a machine used to measure earthquake shocks. He was always what he was in the beginning, but never quite exactly what he was; he moved along a line dictated by his heritage and his environment, but he was subject to every sort of variation within the narrow limits of his capabilities.
...
She shut her mind on that too. There was danger in looking at people as lines. The past spread backward and you saw things in perspective that you hadn't seen then, and that made the future ominous, more ominous than if you just looked at the point, at the moment. There might be truth in what Bruce said, but there was not much comfort.”
― Wallace Stegner, quote from The Big Rock Candy Mountain


“Where do I belong in this country? Where is home?”
― Wallace Stegner, quote from The Big Rock Candy Mountain


“girl of eighteen named Elsa Norgaard,”
― Wallace Stegner, quote from The Big Rock Candy Mountain


“within yourself, you became a grave for her as you were a grave for Chet, and you carried your dead unquietly within you. —”
― Wallace Stegner, quote from The Big Rock Candy Mountain



About the author

Wallace Stegner
Born place: in Lake Mills, Iowa, The United States
Born date February 18, 1909
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Nuestras vidas Colisionaron. Nosotros fuimos una feliz colisión de dos mundos combinándose en uno.”
― Stefne Miller, quote from Collision


“Silence over Europe’s recent past was the necessary condition for the construction of a European future.”
― Tony Judt, quote from Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945


“Love is best a phantom than reality, better in the chase than caught.”
― Jessie Burton, quote from The Miniaturist


“I was fine before,” Vhalla protested.
“You were boring. You were worse than boring. You were normal and content. I gave you a chance for greatness.” He looked at her harshly.”
― Elise Kova, quote from Air Awakens


“When you fall in love, friends, let yourself fall.”
― J.J. Abrams, quote from S.


Interesting books

Summers at Castle Auburn
(9.6K)
Summers at Castle Au...
by Sharon Shinn
The Virgin's Lover
(44.8K)
The Virgin's Lover
by Philippa Gregory
The Ten-Year Nap
(7.8K)
The Ten-Year Nap
by Meg Wolitzer
The Moth Diaries
(2.2K)
The Moth Diaries
by Rachel Klein
Progress and Poverty
(232)
Progress and Poverty
by Henry George
Descent into Hell
(1.7K)
Descent into Hell
by Charles Williams

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.