A fogged round mirror rests beside a ribbon-tied stack of sealed letters on burgundy ground.

Original artwork, not a still

John Steinbeck

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Steinbeck, in a diary line, describes writing as a lonely job. Alone, the writer still tries to put the unexplainable into words. It's a candid picture of the effort to say what resists being said at all.

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