Steinbeck and Those He Influenced (Ahem!)

Now I know what my husband does when he isn’t finding obscure movies and plays for us to go to. He’s surfing the Web. But lucky me! He found these quotes for me from John Steinbeck, one of my favorite writers. In fact, Grapes of Wrath was probably instrumental in my choice of themes for both my novel This Is the Place (www.budurl.com/ThisIsthePlace )and my lots of my poetry. I thought you’d love them, too, so here they are:


~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.
~Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.
~Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.
~I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

~In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.

~No one wants advice - only corroboration.

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

By the way, my This Is the Place is out of print. You can see from the Amazon widget above that it is still available as a used book. I just love to have it read! So go for it. Basically it will cost only shipping! But if used books don't appeal to you, I will be re-editing it and publishing it on my own soon. And it will be issued as an e-book.


----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: