John Steinbeck Quotes

Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.

They's times when how you feel got to be kep' to yourself.

There's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be.

One of the laws of paleontology is that an animal which must protect itself with thick armour is degenerate. It is usually a sign that the species is on the road to extinction.

For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.

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.

I know now why confusion in government is not only tolerated but encouraged. I have learned. A confused people can make no clear demands.

Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.

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.

Sometimes when she was alone, and she knew she was alone, she permitted her mind to play in a garden, and she smiled.

If a man ordered a beer milk shake, he thought, he'd better do it in a town where he wasn't known.

A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers.

A man who gets few letters does not open one lightly.

Dear Lord,' he said. 'let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be. If you will let everybody like me, why, I’ll give you anything in the world, and if I haven’t got it, why, I’ll go for to get it. I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

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.

If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.

Why do men like me want sons? he wondered. It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance at life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone.

Father and son are natural enemies and each is happier and more secure in keeping it that way.

It is astounding to find that the belly of every black and evil thing is as white as snow. And it is saddening to discover how the concealed parts of angels are leporous.

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.

No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us.

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.

Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain.

I seen it over an' over—a guy talkin' to another guy and it don't make no difference if he don't hear or understand. The thing is, they're talkin', or they're settin' still not talkin'. It don't make no difference, no difference. [...] George can tell you screwy things, and it don't matter. It's just the talking. It's just bein' with another guy. That's all.

He never forgot anything but he never bothered to arrange his memories. -Hazel, Cannery Row

It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.

Within that frame he went a long way and burned a deep scar.

The clouds appeared and went away, and in a while they did not try anymore.

I have thought that men and women should never come together except in bed. There is the only place where their natural hatred of each other is not so apparent.

It was a day as different from other days as dogs are from cats and both of them from chrysanthemums or tidal waves or scarlet fever.

My wife, my Mary, goes to her sleep the way you would close the door of a closet. So many times I have watched her with envy. Her lovely body squirms a moment as though she fitted herself into a cocoon. She sighs once and at the end of it her eyes close and her lips, untroubled, fall into that wise and remote smile of the Ancient Greek gods. She smiles all night in her sleep, her breath purrs in her throat, not a snore, a kitten's purr... She loves to sleep and sleep welcomes her.

This I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.

Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes it'll on'y be one.

Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ...Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.

He can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure.

Perhaps it takes courage to raise children.

People do not want advice - they want corroboration.

I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

Sir, this is a unique dog. He does not live by tooth or fang. He respects the right of cats to be cats although he doesn't admire them. He turns his steps rather than disturb an earnest caterpillar. His greatest fear is that someone will point out a rabbit and suggest that he chase it. This is a dog of peace and tranquility.

Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.

These too are of a burning color--not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.

I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen. It's scary to think about. Point of reference again. When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

A wife is like a children's movie; always under-appreciated and without either, life would be incomplete.

My own journey started long before I left, and was over before I returned.

It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it.