Quotes from John Steinbeck

Kino heard the little splash of morning waves on the beach. It was very good -- Kino closed his eyes again to listen to his music.

All Americans believe that they are born fishermen. For a man to admit a distaste for fishing would be like denouncing mother-love or hating moonlight.

He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.

I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.

The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It's as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.

And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.

It is the nature of a person as he/she grows older to protest against change, particularly changes for the better.

He had drawn a derogatory statement from George. He felt safe now.

The lies we tell about our duty and our purposes, the meaningless words of science and philosophy, are walls that topple before a bewildered little 'why'.

We only have one story. All novels, all poetry are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil.

Poetry is the mathematics of writing and closely kin to music.

In business and in politics a man must carve and maul his way through men to get to be King of the Mountain. Once there, he can be great and kind-but he must get there first.

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

And their greed was for gold or God. They collected souls as they collected jewels.

Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor.

We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God.

The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.

I wish to God I knew as much about writing as I did when I was 19. I was absolutely certain about most things then. Also, I suspect, more accurate.

Only God sees the sparrow fall, but even God doesn't do anything about it.

And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.

Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.

A good writer always works at the impossible.

In nature two things do not occur-the wheel and good taste.