Tag Archives: john steinbeck

John Steinbeck On Writing

C__Data_Users_DefApps_AppData_INTERNETEXPLORER_Temp_Saved Images_95926216ba27d5dc7e03225821f964c0.jpg“In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base theme. 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 nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. there is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”
(Journal entry, 1938; quoted in introduction to 1994 edition of Of Mice and Men)

~ John Steinbeck

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There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue.

There’s just stuff people do.”

~ John Steinbeck

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He was and still is a huge influence on my writing to this day. His work, you may find is also an influence on my new book, “The Bones of Our Existence, A Journal 2046”. The daily struggle of mankind and humanity, compassion, will always exist. Bukowski once said it’s how we walk through the fire. Steinbeck’s books showed us how.

In the end?

We are all survivors.

~R.M. Engelhardt

WORDS ON WRITING

 

John Steinbeck

 

“I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape. I suppose if that definition is strictly held to, then a writer of stories is a liar–if he is financially fortunate.”

~ John Steinbeck, East of Eden

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOHN STEINBECK

“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.”

~ John Steinbeck

 

John-Steinbeck

Having …

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“Having too many THINGS, Americans spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and Nature throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on it’s knees, miserable, greedy and sick.”

~ John Steinbeck

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“Once in a while there is a man who won’t do what is demanded of him, and do you know what happens? The whole machine devotes itself coldly to the destruction of his difference. They’ll beat your spirit and your nerves, your body and your mind, with iron rods until the dangerous difference goes out of you.”

~  John Steinbeck

TEXAS …

 

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“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling t…hat Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.”
~  John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
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“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about.”
~  John Steinbeck, East of Eden