Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the jobs of life. John Updike on religion
The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion. John Updike on religion
Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them. John Updike on respect
The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell it. John Updike on society
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 on sports
Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner. John Updike on teacher
Truth should not be forced it should simply manifest itself, like a woman who has in her privacy reflected and coolly decided to bestow herself upon a certain man. John Updike on truth
Now that I am sixty, I see why the idea of elder wisdom has passed from currency. John Updike on wisdom
The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education. John Updike on wisdom
Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. John Updike on dreams
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. (on J.D. Salinger) John Updike on risk