How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight, perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. (1.1.1)
Steinbeck has apparently always had an irresistible urge to travel and be out there learning. Although he doesn't specifically mention writing, his thirst to explore is definitely about his projects and mission as a writer.
Quote #2
My plan was clear, concise, and reasonable, I think. For many years I have traveled in many parts of the world. In America I live in New York, or dip into Chicago or San Francisco. But New York is no more America than Paris is France or London is England. Thus I discovered that I did not know my own country. I, an American writer, writing about America, was working from memory, and the memory is at best a faulty, warpy reservoir. I had not heard the speech of America, smelled the grass and trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, its color and quality of light. I knew the changes only from books and newspapers. But more than this, I had not felt the country for twenty-five years. In short, I was writing of something I did not know about, and it seems to me that in a so-called writer this is criminal. My memories were distorted by twenty-five intervening years. (1.2.1)
There you have it: this whole writing project is about making sure Steinbeck has legit American author status—and how can you have that without having explored America recently? That's Steinbeck's perspective, at least, so that's why he's hitting the road.
Quote #3
I wondered how in hell I'd got myself mixed up in a project that couldn't be carried out. It was like starting to write a novel. When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. This happens every time. Then gradually I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate and I eliminate the possibility of ever finishing. So it was now, as I looked at the bright-colored projection of monster America. (2.1.31)
Steinbeck definitely dips into reflections about writing and authorship throughout the story, and this is just one example of his musings on the subject. There's some good advice in here, Shmoopers—sometimes you just have to take writing a bite at a time until you get to a whole product.