Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Unless a writer's capable of solitude, he should leave books alone and go into the theater.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“I was writing of something I did not know about, and it seems to me that in a so-called writer this is… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold onto… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
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… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“If only I wouldn’t take this book so seriously. It is just a book after all, and a book is very dead… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
They must be real people. And this means that every word in every line of speech must be accurate and full of… — 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
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page a… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn't telling, or teaching, or ordering.… — 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
After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he… — 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
The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for… — 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
“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
To finish is sadness to a writer — a little death. He puts the last word down and it is done. But… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I write because I like to write. I find joy in the texture and tone and rhythm of words. It is a… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
A writer lives in awe of words, for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“When you are writing, you must treat it as the most important thing in the world, even when you know it is… — 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
I wish to God I knew as much about writing as I did when I was 19. I was absolutely certain about… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I have no interest in the printed word. I would continue to write if there were no writing and no print. I… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it-bypass it and go on.… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“I will go so far as to say that the writer who is not scared is happily unaware of the remote and… — 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
![“The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement." [ Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech ]” quote by John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/c2b/john-steinbeck-71_acceptance-speech_the-ancient-commission-of-the-writer-has_1268387.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)
![“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)
