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John Steinbeck

179 quotesJournalist · Died Dec 20, 1968 · United States Of America · Male

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American author of 27 books, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Red Pony (1937). The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. In the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million copies. The winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, he has been called "a giant of American letters". His works are widely read abroad and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature. Most of Steinbeck's work is set in southern and central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists. 2Early life Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, Californi

All Love (13)humanity (12)Life (11)Time (6)Pain (5)Sadness (5)Death (5)Fear (5)Dreams (4)Friendship (4)Living (4)Understanding (4)Loneliness (4)Hate (4)poor (4)

From “The Winter Of Our Discontent”

No one wants advice, only corroboration.

The misery stayed, not thought about but aching away, and sometimes I would have to ask myself, Why do I ache? Men can get used to anything, but it takes time.

My dreams are the problems of the day stepped up to absurdity, a little like men dancing, wearing the horns and masks of animals.

What a wonderful thing a woman is. I can admire what they do even if I don't understand why.

Does anyone ever know even the outer fringe of another? What are you like in there? Mary — do you hear? Who are you in there?

… we've got so many laws you can't breathe without breaking something.

What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.

Not only the brave get killed, but the brave have a better chance of it.

There's nobody as lonely as an all-married man.

People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don’t dream at all.

Dreams Fear Life

From “East of Eden”

That’s why I’m talking to you. You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.

Observation preconception People Expectation

It’s awful not to be loved. It’s the worst thing in the world…It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.

Love Loving Unloved

Maybe that's the reason," Adam said slowly, feeling his way. "Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe-maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? I can…

Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its…

Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has…

There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.

"What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster."

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a…

We all have that heritage, no matter what old land our fathers left. All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed — selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful — we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time…

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