John Updike Quotes

John Updike

John Updike

American Novelist

Born: Mar 18, 1932

Died: Jan 27, 2009

About Life Like Me Think You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft Herman Melville James Baldwin Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

Writing makes you more human. John Updike

You Writing More Makes Human

We are drawn to artists who tell us that art is difficult to do and takes a spiritual effort, because we are still puritan enough to respect a strenuous spiritual effort. John Updike

Art Spiritual Respect Difficult Enough Drawn Tell Puritan Takes Because Still Effort Artists Us Who Strenuous

My wife and I had children when we were children ourselves. John Updike

Wife Ourselves Had Were Children

I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles if I had to. John Updike

Would Write Ads Had Bottles Labels

My life is, in a sense, trash. My life is only that of which the residue is my writing. John Updike

Life Writing My Life Sense Only Which Trash

The first author I met socially was Joyce Cary. John Updike

First Met Joyce Author Socially

Hobbies take place in the cellar and smell of airplane glue. John Updike

Smell Airplane Take Glue Cellar Hobbies Place

There should always be something gratuitous about art, just as there seems to be, according to the new-wave cosmologists, something gratuitous about the universe. John Updike

Art Universe About Seems Something Always According Just Should Gratuitous

Nature refuses to rest. John Updike

Nature Rest Refuses

When I was born, my parents and my mother's parents planted a dogwood tree in the side yard of the large white house in which we lived throughout my boyhood. This tree I learned quite early, was exactly my age - was, in a sense, me. John Updike

The good ending dismisses us with a touch of ceremony and throws a backward light of significance over the story just read. It makes it, as they say, or unmakes it. A weak beginning is forgettable, but the end of a story bulks in the reader's mind like the giant foot in a foreshortened photograph. John Updike

Good Light Ending Mind Beginning Say Weak Giant Backward Significance Photograph Touch Throws Foot Over Like Read Reader Makes End Just Story Us Ceremony They Say

The cinema has done more for my spiritual life than the church. My ideas of fame, success and beauty all originate from the big screen. Whereas Christian religion is retreating everywhere and losing more and more influence; film has filled the vacuum and supports us with myths and action-controlling images. John Updike

Life Success Religion Spiritual Cinema Losing Church Beauty Big Christian Everywhere Spiritual Life More More And More Myths Supports Ideas Retreating Fame Than Done Big Screen Screen Influence Whereas Us Filled Film Originate Christian Religion Images Vacuum

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

Book Kiss Paperback TV Seductive Smaller Remote Cover Hand Fits Texture Than Jacket Human Cloth Bigger Whether Average Flexible

All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so. John Updike

Cartoonists Geniuses Arnold Roth

People are incorrigibly themselves. John Updike

People Themselves

Thinking it over, I can't locate another artist in the Updike family. John Updike

Family Thinking Locate Over Another Artist

If my mother hadn't been trying to be a writer, I don't know if I would have thought of it myself. John Updike

Myself Mother Thought Would Writer Know Been Trying

I don't think women are dumb. John Updike

Women Think Dumb Women Are

An aging writer has the not insignificant satisfaction of a shelf of books behind him that, as they wait for their ideal readers to discover them, will outlast him for a while. John Updike

Wait Will Books Insignificant Outlast Writer Ideal Him Readers Shelf Discover Behind While Them Aging Satisfaction

Without books, we might just melt into the airwaves and be just another set of blips. John Updike

Books Melt Airwaves Another Without Just Might Set

America is beyond power; it acts as in a dream, as a face of God. Wherever America is, there is freedom, and wherever America is not, madness rules with chains, darkness strangles millions. Beneath her patient bombers, paradise is possible. John Updike

My father taught only math. John Updike

Father Only Math Taught

The rich - they just live in another realm, really. John Updike

Rich Live Another Just Really Realm

It's sort of good to see your vocation as a daily task and have fairly modest expectations for financial or reward in other coin - glory, love, whatever. John Updike

Love Good Daily Financial Reward Whatever Other See Vocation Fairly Sort Glory Expectations Task Modest Your Coin

A Christian novelist tries to describe the world as it is. John Updike

World Christian Tries Describe Novelist

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