John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updikewas an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth18 March 1932
CountryUnited States of America
nature men echoes
Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs — To the silent wilderness Where the soul need not repress Its music lest it should not find An echo in another's mind.
age littles like-you
What you lose as you age is witnesses, the ones that watched from early on and cared, like your own little grandstand.
women men turns
There are some women that don't do it for some men. That's why they turn out so many models.
sex black age
Sex ages us. Priests are boyish, spinsters stay black-haired until after fifty. We others, the demon rots us out.
night safety-pins pirate
At last, small witches, goblins, hags, And pirates armed with paper bags Their costumes hinged on safety pins, Go haunt a night of pumpkin grins.
lasts details physicist
The physicists are getting down to the nitty-gritty, they've really just about pared things down to the ultimate details, and the last thing they ever expected to happen is happening. God is showing through.
running golf opportunity
I know how to choke. Given even a splinter-thin opportunity to let my side down and destroy my own score, I will seize it. Not only does ice water not run through my veins, but what runs there has a boiling point lower than body temperature.
art levels fields
Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring - an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.
memories joy tears
Our tears fatten upon our memories of joy.
stories stones flow
It is not enough for a story to flow. It has to kind of trickle and glint as it crosses over the stones of the bare facts.
monday couple inspiration
A few places are especially conducive to inspiration - automobiles, church - public places. I plotted Couples almost entirely in church - little shivers and urgencies I would note down on the program, and carry down to the office Monday.
want down-and young-writers
I really don't want to encourage young writers. Keep them down and out and silent is my motto.
real needs infatuation
I'm always looking for insights into the real Doris Day because I'm stuck with this infatuation and need to explain it to myself.
real past hay-fever
I moved to New England partly because it has a real literary past. The ghosts of Hawthorne and Melville still sit on those green hills. The worship of Mammon is also somewhat lessened there by the spirit of irony. I don't get hay fever in New England either.