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John Steinbeck Quotes - Page 10

All Quotes Ambition Art Business Challenges Chaos Character Children Choices Confusion Country Criticism Design Desire Doubt Dying Earth Effort Evil Fate Fear Feelings Fighting Freedom Friendship Giving Gold Greatness Greed Guilt Hate Hatred Heart Heaven Hell Home Honesty Horror House Hunger Hurt Inspirational Journey Joy Kindness Laughter Life Literature Loneliness Loss Love Luck Lying Magic Mathematics Memories Morning Mountain Nature Obsession Pain Past Philosophy Pleasure Prayer Pride Quality Rain Reading Reality Responsibility Running Sadness Science Sickness Sin Singing Sleep Socialism Son Sorrow Soul Struggle Suffering Summer Teaching Travel Understanding Waiting Wall War Water Wife Winning Winter Worry Writing

Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.

Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.

Dream, Writing, Preparation

John Steinbeck (1989). “Steinbeck: A Life in Letters”, p.67, Penguin

One day we'll sit and you'll lay it out on the table, neat like a solitaire deck, but now - why, you can't find all the cards.

One Day, Cards, Tables

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.228, Penguin

Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.

Men, Choices

You ain't worth a greased lack pin to ram you into hell.

Rams, Hell, Pins

"Of Mice and Men". Book by John Steinbeck. Chapter 6, p. 101, 1937.

There's more beauty in the truth even if it is dreadful beauty.

Beauty, Truth, Chaos

"East of Eden".

Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.

Play, Long, Alive

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.189, Penguin

His ear heard more than what was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.

Understanding, Ears, Speech

John Steinbeck (2016). “Of Mice and Men”, p.17, Hamilton Books

A good writer always works at the impossible.

Impossible, Good Writers

John Steinbeck (1990). “Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters”, p.8, Penguin

A creative person has to be alive. He can't borrow from things he's done in the past. He can't let his method choose his subjects or his characters. They can't be warped to fit his style.

Writing, Character, Past

There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.

Nice, Men, People

John Steinbeck (2016). “The Grapes of Wrath”, p.19, Hamilton Books

One must withdraw for a time from life in order to set down that picture.

Order

... you must not expect to find that people understand what they do.

People

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.25, Penguin

she knew she could help him best by being silent and by being near

Helping, Silent

John Steinbeck (1994). “The Pearl”, p.55, Penguin

But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest.

Unique, Eden, Soul

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.265, Penguin

It is strange how a man believes he can think better in a special place. I have such a place, have always had it, but I know it isn't thinking I do there, but feeling and experiencing and remembering. It's a safety place. Everyone must have one, although I never heard a man tell of it.

Believe, Men, Thinking

"The Winter of Our Discontent". Book by John Steinbeck. Part One, Chapter III, 1961.

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.

Photography, Hate, Cameras

John Steinbeck (1989). “Steinbeck: A Life in Letters”, p.65, Penguin

Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?

Honesty, Honestly

John Steinbeck (2008). “The Winter of Our Discontent”, p.161, Penguin

And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.

Prayer, Men, Past

John Steinbeck (2016). “The Grapes of Wrath”, p.29, Hamilton Books

I start out to write five days a week, and then it runs to six days and finally seven. Then, eventually, that wave of weariness overwhelms me and I don't know what's the matter. That is, I know but I won't admit it. I'm just tired from writing. As you get older, writing becomes harder. By that I mean you see so many more potentialities. Things like transition used to trouble me. But not any more. When I say it's harder, I'm not talking about facility. You learn all the so-called tricks, but then you don't want to use them.

Running, Writing, Tired

Yes, you should talk," he said. "Sometimes a sad man can talk the sadness right out through his mouth. Sometimes a killin' man can talk the murder right out of his mouth.

Sadness, Men, Mouths

John Steinbeck (2016). “The Grapes of Wrath”, p.42, Hamilton Books

We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say — and to feel — "Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought."

Loneliness, Animal, Trying

"In Awe of Words". The Exonian, 75th anniversary edition, Exeter University, 1930.

The design of a book is the pattern of a reality controlled and shaped by the mind of the writer. This is completely understood about poetry or fiction, but it is too seldom realized about books of fact. And yet the impulse which drives a man to poetry will send another man into the tide pools and force him to try to report what he finds there.... It would be good to know the impulse truly, not to be confused by the 'services to science' platitudes or the other little mazes into which we entice our minds so that they will not know what we are doing.

Confused, Book, Reality

John Steinbeck (1995). “The Log from the Sea of Cortez”, p.29, Penguin

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.

Beautiful, Clever, Book

"Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Fourth Series". Book edited by George Plimpton. Chapter "On Publishing", 1977.

Our Father who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys. Virtues and graces and laziness and zest. Our Father who art in nature.

Art, Father, Boys

John Steinbeck (2001). “Novels, 1942-1952”

I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment.

Taken, Hangover, Sleep

"Travels With Charley: In Search of America". Book by John Steinbeck, Part 1, 1962.

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