1,374 Quotes by John Steinbeck

A fallow field is a sin.

For the first time I am working on a book that is not limited and that will take every bit of experience and thought and feeling that I have.

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.

I have the instincts of a minstrel rather than those of a scrivener. There you have it. We are not of the same trade at all and so how can your rules fit me?

Some men hunger so much for love that they lose everything that is loveable about them.

I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails.

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.

For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.

Must hunger become anger and anger fury before anything will be done?