Until the 20th century it was generally assumed that a writer had said what he had to say in his works. John Updike More Quotes by John Updike More Quotes From John Updike Sun and moon, sun and moon, time goes. John Updike moonsuntime All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed. John Updike betrayallove-ismen Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed by the miracle, and crushed by remonstrance. John Updike hoursmiraclechristian The difficulty with humorists is that they will mix what they believe with what they don't; whichever seems likelier to win an effect. John Updike winningbelievehistory You cannot but learn more of the world's heft, as you take it now into your hands. John Updike educationinspirehands The first breathe of adultery is the freest. John Updike adulterybreathefirsts Revolution is just one crowd taking power from another. John Updike just-onecrowdsrevolution The other sad truth about golf spectatorship is that for today's pros it all comes down to the putting, and that the difference between a putt that drops and one that rims the cup, though teleologically enormous, is intellectually negligeable. John Updike differencesgolftoday Dream golf is simply golf played on another course. We chip from glass tables onto moving stairways; we swing in a straightjacket, through masses of cobweb, and awaken not with any sense of unjust hazard but only with a regret that the round can never be completed, and that one of our phantasmal companions has kept the scorecard. John Updike regretdreammoving Golf camaraderie, like that of astronauts and Antarctic explorers, is based on a common experience of transcendence; fat or thin, scratch or duffer, we have been somerwhere together where non-golfers never go. John Updike scratchestogethergolf What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce. Mark Twain Women are an alien race set down among us. John Updike womenaliensrace In no other sport must the spectator move. John Updike golfsportsmoving In asking forgiveness of women for our mythologizing of their bodies, for being unreal about them, we can only appeal to their own sexuality, which is different but not basically different, perhaps, from our own. For women, too, there seems to be that tangle of supplication and possessiveness, that descent toward infantile undifferentiation, that omnipotent helplessness, that merger with the cosmic mother-warmth, that flushed pulse-quickened leap into overestimation, projection, general mix-up. John Updike pulsemotherwar I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone. John Updike governmentleave-me-alonelove The days are short, John Updike sparksdarkwinter There is no such thing as static happiness. Happiness is a mixed thing, a thing compounded of sacrifices, and losses, and betrayals. John Updike betrayalsacrificeloss That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds. John Updike marriagerealheaven Fiction is nothing less than the subtlest instrument for self-examination and self-display that Mankind has invented yet. John Updike examinationselffiction I once did something right. I played first-rate basketball. I really did. And after you're first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick out of being second-rate. John Updike basketballmatterfirsts Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we keep fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness. John Updike smallnesswitnessfighting
