The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “John steinbeck”

The 15 Best Books of 2015
The 15 Best Books of 2015

Rewarding reflections on time, love, loss, courage, creativity, and other transformations of the heart.

read article

The Great French Artist Eugène Delacroix on Self-Doubt, Idea-Ambivalence, and the Cure for Procrastination
The Great French Artist Eugène Delacroix on Self-Doubt, Idea-Ambivalence, and the Cure for Procrastination

“I must never put off for a better day something that I could enjoy doing now.”

read article

Immortal Beloved: Beethoven’s Passionate Love Letters
Immortal Beloved: Beethoven’s Passionate Love Letters

“My heart overflows with a longing to tell you so many things…”

read article

The Value of Not Understanding Everything: Grace Paley’s Advice to Aspiring Writers
The Value of Not Understanding Everything: Grace Paley’s Advice to Aspiring Writers

“Luckily for art, life is difficult, hard to understand, useless, and mysterious.”

read article

Oliver Sacks on Storytelling, the Curious Psychology of Writing, and What His Poet Friend Taught Him About the Nature of Creativity
Oliver Sacks on Storytelling, the Curious Psychology of Writing, and What His Poet Friend Taught Him About the Nature of Creativity

“The act of writing is an integral part of my mental life; ideas emerge, are shaped, in the act of writing… a special, indispensable form of talking to myself.”

read article

James Thurber on Longing, Unrequited Love, and the Power of a Kiss
James Thurber on Longing, Unrequited Love, and the Power of a Kiss

“Kissing seems not a great matter, in a way. And yet in one way it speaks the million things which words can’t.”

read article

Kafka on Love and Patience
Kafka on Love and Patience

“Patience is the master key to every situation. One must have sympathy for everything, surrender to everything, but at the same time remain patient and forbearing.”

read article

The Inner Light of Creativity: Vivian Gornick on How You Blossom into Being an Artist
The Inner Light of Creativity: Vivian Gornick on How You Blossom into Being an Artist

“I experienced a joy then I knew nothing else would ever equal. Not an ‘I love you’ in the world could touch it.”

read article

Beloved Composer Leonard Bernstein on the Importance of Believing in Each Other and How Art Fortifies Our Mutual Dignity
Beloved Composer Leonard Bernstein on the Importance of Believing in Each Other and How Art Fortifies Our Mutual Dignity

“We must learn to know ourselves better through art. We must rely more on the unconscious, inspirational side of man… We must believe, without fear, in people.”

read article

The Subterranean River of Emotion: Cheryl Strayed on Writing, the Art of Living with Opposing Truths, and the Three Ancient Motifs in All Great Storytelling
The Subterranean River of Emotion: Cheryl Strayed on Writing, the Art of Living with Opposing Truths, and the Three Ancient Motifs in All Great Storytelling

“When you’re speaking in the truest, most intimate voice about your life, you are speaking with the universal voice.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to Amazon. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book on Amazon from any link on here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)