"Ideas are like rabits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen" (Steinbeck) - Comments on Writing

Steinbeck quotes:
"We are lonesome animals.  We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome.  One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say - and to feel - 'Yes, that's the way it is, or at least that's the way I feel it.  You're not as alone as you thought.'"
"The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."
"The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world.  And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true."
"In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable."
"I have written a great many stories and I still don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances."
"Although it must be a thousand years ago that I sat in a class in story writing at Stanford, I remember the experience very clearly.  I was bright-eyes and bushy-brained and prepared to absorb the secret formula for writine good short stories, even great short stories.  This illusion was canceled very quickly.  The only way to write a good short story, we were told, is to write a good short story..."
Reference: http://kvwordsmith.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/john-steinbeck-quotes-writing-advice/