“Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.”

— John Steinbeck

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
Context: Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches — nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.
Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.
The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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John Steinbeck 366

American writer 1902–1968

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“Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.”

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John Steinbeck 366

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