Top 42 Quotes by John Steinbeck

I have never smuggled anything in my life. Why, then, do I feel an uneasy sense of guilt on approaching a customs barrier?

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.

Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

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

Time is the only critic without ambition.

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.