Jon Boyd

“Whenever I am in Southwold, the Sailors’ Reading Room is by far my favourite haunt. It is better than anywhere else for reading, writing letters, following one’s thoughts . . .”

“Dead trees are as important to the forest as living trees. Indeed, they are even more important.”

“I’m thinking of calling a general strike of all writers until mankind finally comes to its senses. Would you support it?”

“The circumstance which gives Authors an Advantage above all the great Masters, is this, that they can make Copies of their Works.”

“Seeing that these young ones have enough to eat is a great hindrance to one’s reading.”

“Why not turn from this brief and transient spell of time and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the past?”

“There are men still living who can recall the days when it was considered necessary and even delightful to write letters to one’s friends.”

“Rumor, swiftest of all evils; she thrives on speed and gains strength as she goes.”

“‘Let us assume’ turns in a few pages into ‘We may assume,’ which, in a few more, is ‘As we have shown’ . . .”

“He best expressed his preference for his wild homestead by saying that his Bible seemed truer to him there.”

“Each one of us has his little communication to make, a restricted one, and from all these communications the readers can choose.”

“Though I do not think that this book calls for blame, if someone wants to be unpleasant about it, he can blame me and my friends.”

“Steinbeck was normally permissive with his editors on such points, though he strongly resisted what he called ‘collaboration’ . . .”

“Thanks again for the Merry Christmas. Best of everything in 1960 to you and yours.”

“The great drawback upon the lives of these settlers, at present, is the unfitness of the women for their new lot.”

“Nothing makes a deep impression anymore.”