12 John Steinbeck Quotes on Writing

John Steinbeck quotes on writing

2. The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.

5. Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

6. The profession of book-writing makes horse-racing seem like a solid, stable business.

8. In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.

9. The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

35. Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair. Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.

42. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping.

51. I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.

64. A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.

68. I have owed you this letter for a very long time - but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

69. Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor.

75. ...there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. there is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.