John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updikewas an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth18 March 1932
CountryUnited States of America
leadership men people
A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.
yesterday each-day afraid-of-death
Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?
order devil body
Chaos is God's body. Order is the Devil's chains.
life yesterday too-much
Life, too much of it, and not enough. The fear that it will end some day, and the fear that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday.
enough
We are cruel enough without meaning to be.
new-york boston cities
An American in London...cannot but be impressed and charmed by the city. The momumentality of Washington, the thriving business of New York, the antique intimacy of Boston, plus a certain spacious and open feeling reminiscent of Denver and San Francisco-all these he finds combined for his pleasure.
education pain learning
It's not up to us what we learn, but merely whether we learn through joy or through pain.
book writing looks
If you look at the best-seller list, it is mostly thrillers. Very few books attempt to create an image of the life we live. I knew there were writers who wore tweed coats and lived in Connecticut and somehow made a living, and that's what I aimed to do. I've tried to write as well as I can with books that say something to any reader.
two phrases literature
But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography.
moving light darkness
Pressed, I would define spirituality as the shadow of light humanity casts as it moves through the darkness of everything that can be explained.
maturity mature cry
If you're telling me I'm not mature, that's one thing I don't cry over since as far as I can make out it's the same thing as being dead.
art wall educational
The educational aspect of art shows has become overbearing: some of exhibits can leave you bleary from trying to read the walls. Presumably a piece of art is timeless and it can say something to us. You are taking away the right of art to talk for itself.
religion church weekdays
In general, the churches, visited by me often on weekdays... bore for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola; they promoted thirst without quenching it.
golf remember-you remembers-you
The muttered hint, "Remember, you have a stroke here," freezes my joints like a blast from Siberia.