As I mentioned, the good folks here at HTH will be enlightening your Wednesdays from now on with some wisdom and knowledge that we have gained from some of the finest writers of the past hundred years. We do this in an attempt to share what we have learned in hopes it will enrich both of our lives and our writing. An item that I also really found very cool about Steinbeck's, Journal of a Novel, but failed to mention in the original blog post is that each letter is dated with the day on which Steinbeck wrote it and the days and their numbers correspond to the year 2012. It added to the book for me because it was as if I were reading it on the same day that Steinbeck wrote it. I know that is somewhat delusional, but it still felt neat to me. Well, without further adieu here are some more great quotes from the book:
"A good writer always works at the impossible. There is another kind who pulls in his horizons, drops his mind as one lowers rifle sights. And giving up the impossible, he gives up writing." pg. 4
"And so I start my book addressed to my boys. I think perhaps, it is the only book I have ever written. I think there is only one book to a man. It is true that a man may change or be so warped that he becomes another man and has another book but I don't think that is so with me." (Steinbeck has previously published 22 books including, Of Mice and Men, and, The Grapes of Wrath) pg. 5
"Surely I feel humble in the face of this work." pg. 5
"But I want to write this one as though it were my last book. Maybe I believe that every book should be written that way." pg. 8
"My choice of pencils lies now between the black Calculator stolen from Fox Films and this Mongol 2 3/8F which is quite black and holds its point well--much better in fact that the Fox pencils. I will get six more or maybe four more dozens of them for my pencil tray. and this is all I am going to do on this my first day of work." pg. 9
"I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers, the straightening shyness that assails one. It is as though the words were not only indelible, but that they spread out like dye in water and color everything around them. A strange and mystic business, writing. Almost no progress has taken place since it was invented. The Book of the Dead is as good and as highly developed as anything in the 20th century and much better than most. And yet in spite of this lack of continuing excellence, hundreds of thousands of people are in my shoes--praying feverishly for relief from their word pangs" pg.9
"The pipes are tasting very good. I have a feeling to buy a meerschaum and start coloring it as I do this book. Maybe I will do that. By the time the pipe is brown the book should be done. More magics. I think tomorrow I will look for a meerschaum, a small light one. Saw one in a window the other day, but I forgot where..." pg.13
"You know I always smoke a pipe when I work--at least I used to and now I have taken it up again. It is strange--as soon as a pipe begins to taste good, cigarettes become tasteless..." pg.17
"Of course I feel that any imposed institution, even conditioned, is bad and not conductive to the development of the two great foundations of art and science: curiosity and criticism." pg. 15
Happy Reading and Writing,
David
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