John Steinbeck's Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962:
"The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit -- for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectability of man has no dedication or membership in literature."