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John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck Quotes

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Famous John Steinbeck Quotes

“Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor.”

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Book:Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath
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“It is customary for the recipient of this award to offer personal or scholarly comment on the nature and the direction of literature. At this particular time, however, I think it would be well to consider the high duties and the responsibilities of the makers of literature.”

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Book:William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill [and] John Steinbeck
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“Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair. Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species. --speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1962”

NeedsHumansHas BeensLiteratureGamesChurchCitiesResponsibilityChangedDutyGrewNeededSpeechDespairSingingLowsEmptyFunctionSpeciesCriticalHallsPaleExclusiveNobelDecemberCaloriesPriesthoodHuman NeedsBanquetsBardsStockholmCity Hall
Book:A Life in Letters
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“The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.”

MenBelieveHeartDoeWarSpiritLiteratureCompassionGreatnessDespairWeaknessCapacityAnd LoveDefeatEndlessCelebrateFlagsDedicationProvenMembershipEmulationGallantryEndless War
Book:America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
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