A photograph offers us a glimpse into the abyss of time. John Updike More Quotes by John Updike More Quotes From John Updike Most writers begin with accounts of their first home, their family, and the town, often from quite a hostile point of view-love/hate, let's say. In a way, this stepping outside, in an attempt to judge enough to create a duplicate of it, makes you an outsider. . . . I think it's healthy for a writer to feel like an outsider. If you feel like an insider you get committed to a partisan view, you begin to defend interests, so you wind up not really empathizing with all mankind. John Updike hate home thinking Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us. John Updike mirrors zoos children Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better. John Updike education inspiring motivational Fiction is very greedy. It will take all you know and then some. The first novel I tried to write, I was struck by this - the appetite of the blank page for ever more information, ever more data. An empty book is a greedy thing. You are right: You wind up using everything you know, and often more than once. John Updike writing wind book I must go to Nature disarmed of perspective and stretch myself like a large transparent canvas upon her in the hope that, my submission being perfect, the imprint of a beautiful and useful truth would be taken. John Updike taken perfect beautiful Wickedness was like food: once you got started it was hard to stop; the gut expanded to take in more and more. John Updike wickedness guts hard Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how childlike golf players become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five. John Updike golf children dirty What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. John Updike appreciation teacher art The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all. John Updike excess risk artist You do things and do things and nobody really has a clue. John Updike clue The literary scene is a kind of Medusa’s raft, small and sinking, and one’s instinct when a newcomer tries to clamber aboard is to step on his fingers. John Updike medusa steps trying It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks lateness, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patching to repair great rents in the quotidian. John Updike lateness deceit lying There is the fear that you somehow neglected to say what was really yours to say. John Updike neglected The golf swing is like a suitcase into which we are trying to pack one too many things. John Updike swings golf trying I would especially like to re-court the Muse of poetry, who ran off with the mailman four years ago, and drops me only a scribbled postcard from time to time. John Updike four poetry years We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. ... Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it's up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting. John Updike kings hero writing There is no doubt that I have lots of words inside me; but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam. John Updike tunnels doubt patience Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself. John Updike learning education years Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback. John Updike kissing average book Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went. John Updike car literature home
