Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person-a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing should be personal and directed towards an individual rather than a vague notion of an audience.
John Steinbeck emphasizes the importance of personal connection in writing by suggesting that authors should envision writing for a specific reader. This approach not only makes the writing more relatable and engaging but also allows the writer to connect emotionally, crafting a narrative that resonates with the intended audience more profoundly.
Themes
WritingAudienceConnectionCommunicationStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
A writer reflecting on how to reach their audience during a workshop.
More from John Steinbeck
All quotes →At one point, as Samuel urges Adam to raise his boys well regardless of the blood that might be in them, Adam tells him, "You can't make a race horse of a pig." Samuel replies, "No, but you can make a very fast pig.
John SteinbeckRead
And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.
John SteinbeckRead
The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
John SteinbeckRead
People do not want advice - they want corroboration.
John SteinbeckRead
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
John SteinbeckRead
Similar quotes
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
Madonna CicconeRead
Poetry reveals that there is no empty space.
HafezRead
I consider writing practice a true Zen practice because it all comes back at you. You can't fool anyone because it's on the page.
Natalie GoldbergRead
The drama is complete poetry. The ode and the epic contain it only in germ; it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both.
Victor HugoRead
Remember: It costs nothing to encourage an artist, and the potential benefits are staggering. A pat on the back to an artist now could one day result in your favorite film, or the cartoon you love to get stoned watching, or the song that saves your life. Discourage an artist, you get absolutely nothing in return, ever.
Kevin SmithRead
My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.
Ken LiuRead