Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Focus on getting your ideas out quickly without self-editing, as it encourages creativity and productivity.
This quote by John Steinbeck emphasizes the importance of allowing thoughts to flow freely during the writing process. By discouraging immediate corrections or rewrites, Steinbeck suggests that writers should prioritize getting their ideas on paper to overcome mental blocks and maintain momentum, as the act of rewriting can often serve as a procrastination tactic rather than a productive exercise.
Themes
WritingCreativityProductivityExpressionEditing
In practice
Example use cases
A writing workshop where participants share their first drafts without judgment.
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.
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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
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