Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone. John Updike on alone
I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone. John Updike on alone
What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. John Updike on art
Customs and convictions change respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art. John Updike on art
Customs and convictions change respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art. John Updike on change
Dreams come true without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. John Updike on dreams
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 education
Existence itself does not feel horrible it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have only to be still to experience. John Updike on experience
I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone. John Updike on government
Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness its peculiar magnitude permits no shading. John Updike on government
Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went. John Updike on home
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. John Updike on leadership
We are most alive when we're in love. John Updike on love
Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner. John Updike on marriage
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 on marriage
The first breath of adultery is the freest after it, constraints aping marriage develop. John Updike on marriage
Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for another day's progress through the dazzling quicksand the marsh of blank paper. John Updike on morning
Dreams come true without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. John Updike on nature
A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience. John Updike on patience
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea. John Updike on poetry