The craft of writing is the art of penetrating other minds with the figures that are in your own mind.
John SteinbeckIn literary criticism the critic has no choice but to make over the victim of his attention into something the size and shape of himself.
John SteinbeckIf you want to destroy a nation, give it too much - make it greedy, miserable and sick.
John SteinbeckWe have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.
John SteinbeckI have taken as much as six years to prepare a book for writing. There is such a delirium of effort in the production of a book; it's like childbirth. And, like childbirth, one forgets the pains immediately so that when you come to write another one you dare to take it up again. Some precious anesthesia sees you through.
John Steinbeck