Quote

Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.

John Steinbeck

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Steinbeck
Age: 66 †
Born: 1902
Born: February 27
Died: 1968
Died: December 20
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
War Correspondent
Writer
Salinas
California
John Ernst Steinbeck
Jr.
John Ernst Steinbeck
John Ernest Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr
Steinbeck
Play
Inch
Giving
Critic
Writing
Inches
Critics
Criticism
Literature
Write
Give

More quotes by John Steinbeck

Image
As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.
John Steinbeck
Image
There's nothing in the world like that first taste of beer.
John Steinbeck
Image
A man with a beard was always a little suspect anyway. You couldn't say you wore a beard because you liked a beard. People didn't like you for telling the truth. You had to say you had a scar so you couldn't shave.
John Steinbeck
Image
People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.
John Steinbeck
Image
If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.
John Steinbeck
Image
The people say that the two seemed to be removed from human experience that they had gone through pain and had come out on the other side.
John Steinbeck
Image
Socialism is just another form of religion, and thus delusional.
John Steinbeck
Image
A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn't telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome.
John Steinbeck
Image
So in our pride we ordered for breakfast an omelet, toast and coffee and what has just arrived is a tomato salad with onions, a dish of pickles, a big slice of watermelon and two bottles of cream soda.
John Steinbeck
Image
Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world
John Steinbeck
Image
We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip a trip takes us.
John Steinbeck
Image
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.
John Steinbeck
Image
But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him... or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.
John Steinbeck
Image
One man was so mad at me that he ended his letter, Beware. You will never get out of this world alive.
John Steinbeck
Image
Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic.
John Steinbeck
Image
I am sifting my memories, the way men pan the dirt under a barroom floor for the bits of gold dust that fall between the cracks. It's small mining-- small mining. You're too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.
John Steinbeck
Image
It is a nice thing to be working and believing in my work again. I hope I can keep the drive. I only feel whole and well when it is this way.
John Steinbeck
Image
Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.
John Steinbeck
Image
And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.
John Steinbeck
Image
Many are the stories I have heard about myself. I have mistresses I have never met. When I hear that I am a sodomist and a zoophalist then I shall know that I have reached the high point of fame, but I suppose I can hardly expect such exaltation for many years.
John Steinbeck