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100 Great Quotes By John Updike For Literary Arbiters

Famous As: Poet, Novelist
Born On: March 18, 1932
Died On: January 27, 2009
Born In: Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
Died At Age: 76
John Updike was an eminent art critic, short story writer, novelist, literary critic and poet. He won the ‘Pulitzer Prize’ more than once and is one of the three writers to have achieved this feat - the other two being, ‘William Faulkner’ and ‘Booth Tarkington’. During his career he published more than a dozen short stories, children’s books, poetry, art and literary criticism and approximately twenty novels. Starting 1954, his stories, viewpoints, thoughts, reviews and poems appeared in ‘The New Yorker’. The most sought-after work by John Updike is his ‘Rabbit’ series that showcases the life of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom over several decades starting from young to death. Following is a compilation of quotes and sayings by the prolific writer which have been excerpted from his writings, books, thoughts, poems, articles, short stories, work and life. Presenting quotable quotes and thoughts by John Updike on rain, nature, freedom, power, barefoot, mask, celebrity, conspiracy, hobbies, age, wisdom, relax, sports, creativity, poetry, writing, faith, purpose, victory etc.
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It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.

It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.

John Updike
Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

John Updike
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.

Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.

John Updike
Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.

Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.

John Updike
The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.

The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.

John Updike
If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.

If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.

John Updike
We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.

We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.

John Updike
I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.

I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.

John Updike
What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.

What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.

John Updike
How can you respect the world when you see it's being run by a bunch of kids turned old?

How can you respect the world when you see it's being run by a bunch of kids turned old?

John Updike
Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

John Updike
Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath.

Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath.

John Updike
You do things and do things and nobody really has a clue.

You do things and do things and nobody really has a clue.

John Updike
The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

John Updike
The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun's just started.

The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun's just started.

John Updike
Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more.

Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more.

John Updike
That's the trouble with caring about anybody, you begin to feel overprotective. Then you begin to feel crowded.

That's the trouble with caring about anybody, you begin to feel overprotective. Then you begin to feel crowded.

John Updike
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone

Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone

John Updike
Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.

Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.

John Updike
Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us.

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
But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.

But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.

John Updike
So much love, too much love, it is our madness, it is rotting us out, exploding us like dandelion polls.

So much love, too much love, it is our madness, it is rotting us out, exploding us like dandelion polls.

John Updike
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.

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.

John Updike
What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness in which a few moments, pricked apparently at random, shine?

What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness in which a few moments, pricked apparently at random, shine?

John Updike
But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.

But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.

John Updike
There is this quality, in things, of the right way seeming wrong at first.

There is this quality, in things, of the right way seeming wrong at first.

John Updike
If she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem.

If she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem.

John Updike
We are cruel enough without meaning to be.

We are cruel enough without meaning to be.

John Updike
Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them.

Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them.

John Updike
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.

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
We were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything

We were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything

John Updike
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.

Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.

John Updike
I like old men. They can be wonderful bastards because they have nothing to lose. The only people who can be themselves are babies and old bastards.

I like old men. They can be wonderful bastards because they have nothing to lose. The only people who can be themselves are babies and old bastards.

John Updike
Wickedness was like food: once you got started it was hard to stop; the gut expanded to take in more and more.

Wickedness was like food: once you got started it was hard to stop; the gut expanded to take in more and more.

John Updike
...hate suits him better than forgiveness. Immersed in hate, he doesn't have to do anything; he can be paralyzed, and the rigidty of hatred makes a kind of shelter for him.

...hate suits him better than forgiveness. Immersed in hate, he doesn't have to do anything; he can be paralyzed, and the rigidty of hatred makes a kind of shelter for him.

John Updike
Growth is betrayal.

Growth is betrayal.

John Updike
When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.

When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.

John Updike
Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we keep fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.

Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we keep fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.

John Updike
From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the secrets to be discovered are so paltry and few.

From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the secrets to be discovered are so paltry and few.

John Updike
Not only are selves conditional but they die. Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?

Not only are selves conditional but they die. Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?

John Updike
Having children is something we think we ought to do because our parents did it, but when it is over the children are just other members of the human race, rather disappointingly.

Having children is something we think we ought to do because our parents did it, but when it is over the children are just other members of the human race, rather disappointingly.

John Updike
Students present themselves...like a succession of CDs whose shimmering surface gives no clue to their contents without the equipment to play them.

Students present themselves...like a succession of CDs whose shimmering surface gives no clue to their contents without the equipment to play them.

John Updike
What you haven't done by thirty you're not likely to do. What you have done you'll do lots more.

What you haven't done by thirty you're not likely to do. What you have done you'll do lots more.

John Updike
Women, fire in their crotch, won't burn out, begin by fighting off pricks, end by going wild hunting for one that still works.

Women, fire in their crotch, won't burn out, begin by fighting off pricks, end by going wild hunting for one that still works.

John Updike
Hope bases vast premises upon foolish accidents and reads a word where, in fact, only a scribble exists.

Hope bases vast premises upon foolish accidents and reads a word where, in fact, only a scribble exists.

John Updike
How sad, how strange, we make companions out of air and hurt them, so they will defy us, completing creation.

How sad, how strange, we make companions out of air and hurt them, so they will defy us, completing creation.

John Updike
It's been the same story ever since I can remember, ever since Wilson – the Republicans don't do a thing for the little man.

It's been the same story ever since I can remember, ever since Wilson – the Republicans don't do a thing for the little man.

John Updike
People go around mourning the death of God; it's the death of sssin that bothers me. Without ssin, people aren't people any more, they're just ssoul-less sheep.

People go around mourning the death of God; it's the death of sssin that bothers me. Without ssin, people aren't people any more, they're just ssoul-less sheep.

John Updike
It comes to him: growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere.

It comes to him: growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere.

John Updike
The fucking world is running out of gas.

The fucking world is running out of gas.

John Updike
But cities aren’t like people; they live on and on, even though their reason for being where they are has gone downriver and out to sea.

But cities aren’t like people; they live on and on, even though their reason for being where they are has gone downriver and out to sea.

John Updike
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.

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
We are each of us like our little blue planet, hung in black space, upheld by nothing but our mutual reassurances, our loving lies.

We are each of us like our little blue planet, hung in black space, upheld by nothing but our mutual reassurances, our loving lies.

John Updike
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.

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
History. The more of it you have the more you have to live it. After a little while there gets to be too much of it to memorize and maybe that's when empires start to decline.

History. The more of it you have the more you have to live it. After a little while there gets to be too much of it to memorize and maybe that's when empires start to decline.

John Updike
All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed.

All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed.

John Updike
Days, pale slices between nights, they blend, not exactly alike, transparencies so lightly tinted that only stacked all together do they darken to a fatal shade.

Days, pale slices between nights, they blend, not exactly alike, transparencies so lightly tinted that only stacked all together do they darken to a fatal shade.

John Updike
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the 
Faded credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door.

Let us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the Faded credulity of earlier ages: Let us walk through the door.

John Updike
As if pity is, as he has been taught, not a helpless outcry but a powerful tide that could redeem the world...

As if pity is, as he has been taught, not a helpless outcry but a powerful tide that could redeem the world...

John Updike
We are most alive when we're in love.

We are most alive when we're in love.

John Updike
We wake at different times, and the gallantest flowers are those that bloom in the cold.

We wake at different times, and the gallantest flowers are those that bloom in the cold.

John Updike
The fullness ends when we give Nature her ransom, when we make children for her. Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks.

The fullness ends when we give Nature her ransom, when we make children for her. Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks.

John Updike
How many more, I must ask myself,
such perfect ends of Augusts will I witness?

How many more, I must ask myself, such perfect ends of Augusts will I witness?

John Updike
[I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it.

[I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it.

John Updike
I like middles. . . It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules.

I like middles. . . It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules.

John Updike
On the single strand of wire strung to bring our house electricity, grackles and starlings neatly punctuated an invisible sentence.

On the single strand of wire strung to bring our house electricity, grackles and starlings neatly punctuated an invisible sentence.

John Updike
Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.

Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.

John Updike
The scrape and snap of Keds on loose alley pebbles seems to catapult their voices high into the moist March air blue above the wires.

The scrape and snap of Keds on loose alley pebbles seems to catapult their voices high into the moist March air blue above the wires.

John Updike
What is this? He has a sensation of touching glass. He doesn't know if they are talking about nothing or making code for the deepest meanings.

What is this? He has a sensation of touching glass. He doesn't know if they are talking about nothing or making code for the deepest meanings.

John Updike
Whatever men make,

Whatever men make," she says, "what they felt when they made it is there...Man is a means for turning things into spirit and turning spirit into things.

John Updike
Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

John Updike
It frightens him to think of her this way. It makes her seem, in terms of love, so vast.

It frightens him to think of her this way. It makes her seem, in terms of love, so vast.

John Updike
One does not go to Moscow to get fat.

One does not go to Moscow to get fat.

John Updike
Oh,' she says, 'the Vat prints nothing but rapes. You know what a rape usually is? It's a woman who changed her mind afterward.

Oh,' she says, 'the Vat prints nothing but rapes. You know what a rape usually is? It's a woman who changed her mind afterward.

John Updike
The difficulty with humorists is that they will mix what they believe with what they don’t—whichever seems likelier to win an effect.

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
Sun and moon, sun and moon, time goes.

Sun and moon, sun and moon, time goes.

John Updike
That's why we love disaster, Harry sees it, puts us back in touch with guilt and sends us crawling back to God

That's why we love disaster, Harry sees it, puts us back in touch with guilt and sends us crawling back to God

John Updike
There is no such thing as static happiness. Happiness is a mixed thing, a thing compounded of sacrifices, and losses, and betrayals.

There is no such thing as static happiness. Happiness is a mixed thing, a thing compounded of sacrifices, and losses, and betrayals.

John Updike
The universe is a pointless, self running machine, and we are insignificant by-products, whom death will tuck back into oblivion, with or without holy fanfare.

The universe is a pointless, self running machine, and we are insignificant by-products, whom death will tuck back into oblivion, with or without holy fanfare.

John Updike
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.

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
It was somehow wonderful of her to be, in every detail, herself.

It was somehow wonderful of her to be, in every detail, herself.

John Updike
They’ve not forgotten him: worse, they never heard of him.

They’ve not forgotten him: worse, they never heard of him.

John Updike
I was made to feel I could do things. If you get this feeling early and can hold it until you're 15, you tend to never lose it.

I was made to feel I could do things. If you get this feeling early and can hold it until you're 15, you tend to never lose it.

John Updike
Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

John Updike
You are still you. The U.S. is still the U.S., held together by credit cards and Indian names

You are still you. The U.S. is still the U.S., held together by credit cards and Indian names

John Updike
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.

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
Nature may be defined as that which exists without guilt.

Nature may be defined as that which exists without guilt.

John Updike
Part of being human is being on the verge of disgrace.

Part of being human is being on the verge of disgrace.

John Updike
Atrocity is truly emperor; All things that thrive are slaves of cruel Creation.

Atrocity is truly emperor; All things that thrive are slaves of cruel Creation.

John Updike
Though old himself, he disliked old men.

Though old himself, he disliked old men.

John Updike
I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to. The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.

I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to. The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.

John Updike
As souls must cry when they awaken in tiny babies and find themselves far from heaven

As souls must cry when they awaken in tiny babies and find themselves far from heaven

John Updike
First snow: it came this year late in November.

First snow: it came this year late in November.

John Updike
With his white collar he forges god’s name on every word he speaks

With his white collar he forges god’s name on every word he speaks

John Updike
He doesn't blame people for many sins, but he does hate uncoordination, the root of all evil, as he feels it, for without coordination there can be no order, no connecting.

He doesn't blame people for many sins, but he does hate uncoordination, the root of all evil, as he feels it, for without coordination there can be no order, no connecting.

John Updike
The fiction writer is the ombudsman who argues our humble, dubious case in the halls of eternal record.

The fiction writer is the ombudsman who argues our humble, dubious case in the halls of eternal record.

John Updike
In general the churches ... bore for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola: they promoted thirst without quenching it.

In general the churches ... bore for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola: they promoted thirst without quenching it.

John Updike
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

John Updike
No act is so private it does not seek applause.

No act is so private it does not seek applause.

John Updike