Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
I nearly always write — just as I nearly always breathe.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing is as essential to the author as breathing is to life.
John Steinbeck emphasizes the fundamental importance of writing in his life, suggesting that it is as natural and necessary as breathing. This highlights the idea that for a true writer, the act of creation is not merely a task but an intrinsic part of their existence and identity, evocative of how essential air is for living.
Themes
WritingBreathingLifeCreationIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, one could say, 'As Steinbeck noted, I nearly always write — just as I nearly always breathe,' to inspire participants.
More from John Steinbeck
All quotes →At one point, as Samuel urges Adam to raise his boys well regardless of the blood that might be in them, Adam tells him, "You can't make a race horse of a pig." Samuel replies, "No, but you can make a very fast pig.
John SteinbeckRead
And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.
John SteinbeckRead
The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
John SteinbeckRead
People do not want advice - they want corroboration.
John SteinbeckRead
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
John SteinbeckRead
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