“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. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”
– John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. Crooks on a black man’s loneliness with nobody to talk to because he is so secluded from the social circle. This passage highlights the need for companionship and the oppressive nature of society for Crooks, who faces both loneliness and discrimination.