A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I think today if we forbade our illiterate children to touch the wonderful things of our literature, perhaps they might steal them… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
A book is somehow sacred. A dictator can kill and maim people, can sink to any kind of tyranny and only be… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires.… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches, nor is it a game… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Then there were his education and his reading, the books he bought and borrowed, his knowledge of things that could not be… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I don't think there is a single sentence in this whole book [East of Eden] that does not either develop character, carry… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
The basic rule [of writing] given us was simple and heartbreaking. A story to be effective had to convey something from the… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
The design of a book is the pattern of a reality controlled and shaped by the mind of the writer. This is… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“If I could do this book properly it would be one of the really fine books and a truly American book. But… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
A woman journalist in England asked me why Americans usually wrote about their childhood and a past that happened only in imagination,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved.… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person-a real person you know,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“I intended to make it sound guileless and rather sweet but you will see in it the little blades of social criticism… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
It is customary for the recipient of this award to offer personal or scholarly comment on the nature and the direction of… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Hard-covered books break up friendships. You loan a hard covered book to a friend and when he doesn’t return it you get… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
The curious hocus-pocus of criticism I can't take seriously. It consists in squirreling up some odd phrases and then waiting for a… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. My three [great teachers] did not… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“And now submarines are armed with mass murder, our silly, only way of deterring mass murder.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“I’d think there are degrees of greatness,” Adam said. “I don’t think so,” said Samuel. “That would be like saying there is a little… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“He was forever inventing a new way of doing an old thing and doing it better and quicker, but he never in his whole… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“You come back a changed man. Samuel, you don’t change him. He changes you. I can see the look of him in your face.”… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments — John Steinbeck Copy Share
At about 10 o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows and in and out… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I have noticed that there is no dissatisfaction like that of the rich. Feed a man, clothe him, put him in a good house,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
Sometimes, a lie is told in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“Suddenly he knew joy and sorrow felted into one fabric. Courage and fear were one thing too. He found that he had started to… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I am writing this from what we Americans call Yurrp. In Yurrp writers are taken as seriously as Lana Turner's legs are in America… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I write because I like to write. I find joy in the texture and tone and rhythm of words. It is a satisfaction like… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
![“I don't think there is a single sentence in this whole book [East of Eden] that does not either develop character, carry on the story or provide necessary background.” quote by John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/281/john-steinbeck-71_backgrounds_i-don-t-think-there-is-a-single-sentence_137884.jpg)
![“The basic rule [of writing] given us was simple and heartbreaking. A story to be effective had to convey something from the writer to the reader, and the power of its offering was the measure of its excellence. Outside of that, there were no rules.” quote by John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/e12/john-steinbeck-71_books_the-basic-rule-of-writing-given-us-was-s_1266697.jpg)
