Quote

Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.

John Steinbeck

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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
Writing
Preparation
Work
Twenty
Time
Twenties
Learned
Working
Hours
Luckily
Three
Saves
Dream
Require

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Writing to me is a deeply personal, even a secret function and when the product I turned loose it is cut off from me and I have no sense of its being mine. Consequently criticism doesn't mean anything to me. As a disciplinary matter, it is too late.
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Don't make everyone know about your sadness.
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He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.
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A journey is a person in itself no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip a trip takes us.
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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.
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I have lost all sense of home, having moved about so much. It means to me now--only that place where the books are kept.
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On all levels American society is rigged. I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. It cannot survive on this basis.
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Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money.
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Strength and success - they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn't seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught.
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“Do you take pride in your hurt?” Samuel asked. “Does it make you seem large and tragic?” “I don't know.” “Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”
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Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page a day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
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Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.
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War ... a reversal of the rules where a man is permitted to kill all the humans he can.
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People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.
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You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow.
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