The main takeaway here is that Steinbeck lived in a quagmire of self-doubt the entire time he was drafting one of the greatest American novels of all time. But he went to work anyway. As a writer I take immense encouragement from his determined discipline and his desire to write “one good book” in his lifetime. Well, sir, you certainly accomplished more than one.

Favorite quote: “Here is a strange thing—almost like a secret. You start out putting words down and there are three things—you, the pen, and the page. Then gradually the three things merge until they are all one and you feel about the page as you do about your arm. Only you love it more than you love your arm.”