John Steinbeck

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#fingers #i #letter #long #long time

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

— John Steinbeck

#believe #dedication #does #hold #i

It has always been my private conviction that any man who puts his intelligence up against a fish and loses had it coming. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#always #any #been #coming #conviction

Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#army #ball games #banners #despair #field

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#inexplicable #loneliness #tries #utter #writer

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#disappeared #earth #ever #face #quarrelsome

Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#highest #lad #place #republic #restored

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#doing #even #hold #illusion #important

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#book writing #business #horse #horse racing #like

Time is the only critic without ambition. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#critic #only #time #without