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Steinbeck

John Steinbeck is known not only for his best-selling books, but also for many pithy one-liners. Here are a few tidbits:

"I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool."

"I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it."

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."

"The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty."

"The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."

"The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true."

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