All John Steinbeck Quotes
- 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… Admit
- I have taken as much as six years to prepare a book for writing. There is such a delirium of effort in the production of… Anesthesia
- The curious hocus-pocus of criticism I can't take seriously. It consists in squirreling up some odd phrases and then waiting for a book to come… Book
- I write because I like to write. I find joy in the texture and tone and rhythm of words. It is a satisfaction like that… Find
- I wish to God I knew as much about writing as I did when I was 19. I was absolutely certain about most things then.… Absolutely
- A funeral isn't for the dead. You'll simply be a stage set for a kind of festival maybe. And besides, you won't even be there. Besides
- I have starved and it isn't nearly as bad as is generally supposed. Four days and a half was my longest stretch. Maybe there are… Bad
- A woman holds dreadful power over a man who is in love with her but she should realize that the quality and force of his… Contempt
- The story [Henny-Penny] has the best opening in all literature-"The sky is falling," cried Henny-Penny, "and a piece of it fell on my tail. All
- There is no term comparable to green thumbs to apply to such a mechanic, but there should be. For there are men who can look,… Adjustment
- I do not find illness an eminence, and I do not understand how people can use it to draw attention to themselves since the attention… Attention
- I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a… Countryside
- It must be a hard thing to kill a man you don't know and don't hate. Hard
- One can't be happy as I have been for very long. There's a law against it. I have worked hard and enjoyed my work and… Been
- The techniques of opening conversation are universal. I knew long ago and rediscovered that the best way to attract attention, help, and conversation is to… Ago
- I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers, the straitening shyness… Amazing
- I find it valid to understand man as an animal before I am prepared to know him as a man. Animal
- The great concepts of oneness and of majestic order seem always to be born in the desert. Born
- We have to make a mark, even if it's only a scribble. Challenges
- Only let a man say that he will do something and a whole mechanism goes to work to stop him. Difficulty
- For many years we have suckled on fear and fear alone, and there is no good product of fear. Alone
- This I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. Any
- Some men hunger so much for love that they lose everything that is loveable about them. Hunger
- I have the instincts of a minstrel rather than those of a scrivener. There you have it. We are not of the same trade at… All
- I have no interest in the printed word. I would continue to write if there were no writing and no print. I put my words… Continue