“The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit — for gallantry in defeat — for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.
I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man, has no dedication nor any membership in literature.”
Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
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John Steinbeck 366
American writer 1902–1968Related quotes

“I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.”
"Venice," The Century Magazine, vol. XXV (November 1882), reprinted in Portraits of Places (1883) and later in Italian Hours http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8ihou10.txt (1909), ch: I: Venice, pt. I.

New York September 7, 2000 Asia Society Annual Dinner
Quotes from ataljee.org

“A writer is essentially a man who does not resign himself to loneliness.”

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 210.

Source: The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, p. 428