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JOHN STEINBECK
The Art of Fiction No. 45 (Continued)
Interviewed by Nathaniel Benchley
Issue 63, Fall 1975
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From the Interview
STEINBECK ON HAVING A WRITER IN THE FAMILY

This is sad news, but I can’t think of a thing you can do about it. I can remember the horror which came over my parents when they became convinced that it was so with me—and properly so. What you have and they had to look forward to is life made intolerable by a mean, cantankerous, opinionated, moody, quarrelsome, unreasonable, nervous, flighty, irresponsible son. You will get no loyalty, little consideration, and desperately little attention from him. In fact you will want to kill him.

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