John Steinbeck Book Quotes

Novelist and playwright, John Steinbeck, was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck (1862-1935), was the Monterey County Treasurer. His mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck (1867-1934), was a former school teacher. John was the only boy of the Steinbecks’ four children.

Sisters:
Esther (1892–1986)
Elizabeth Ann (1894-1992)
Mary (1905-65).

Steinbeck was married three times:
1st Wife: Carol Henning (1930-32)
2nd Wife: Gwyndolyn Conger (1943-48)
3rd Wife: Elaine Anderson Scott (1950-til his death)

Children (with Gwyndolyn Conger):
Son: Thomas Steinbeck (1944-2016)
Son: John Steinbeck IV (1946-91)

Steinbeck’s works were strongly influenced by the time he spent growing up in the Salinas Valley to the extent that Salinas is virtually synonymous with John Steinbeck.

Awards
1937 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award (for Of Mice and Men)
1940 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (for The Grapes of Wrath)
1962 Nobel Prize for Literature
1964 Presidential Medal of Freedom

Can you identify the John Steinbeck novel each of the following quotes is from?

1. It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. show

2. I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found. show

3. It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them. show

4. The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. show

5. Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won’t all be poor. show

6. We could live offa the fatta the lan’. show

7. Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning. show

8. Men seem to be born with a debt they can never pay no matter how hard they try. show

9. I’m tired of people who have not been at war who know all about it. show

10. Nearly all of his father’s presents were given with reservations which hampered their value. show