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
world fraud rounds
Fraud makes the world go round.
ugly gorgeous accents
Accent the ugly until it becomes gorgeous.
bored planets so-bored
How can the planet keep turning and turning and not get so bored it explodes?
done thirty havens
What you haven't done by thirty you're not likely to do. What you have done you'll do lots more.
memories joy tears
Our tears fatten upon our memories of joy.
ancient fire god greeks human identified mars moving named pull red seen sinister sky star violent war
Mars has long exerted a pull on the human imagination. The erratically moving red star in the sky was seen as sinister or violent by the ancients: The Greeks identified it with Ares, the god of war; the Babylonians named it after Nergal, god of the underworld. To the ancient Chinese, it was Ying-huo, the fire planet.
activity american-novelist becomes cares creative creativity doer merely name plus regular
Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.
carrying majors narrow rocks tiger uphill
Tiger Woods did not always win majors with ease; after his narrow victory in the 1999 PGA, he slumped and sighed as if he'd been carrying rocks uphill all afternoon.
almost arabic believer call prayer quite
Arabic is very twisting, very beautiful. The call to prayer is quite haunting; it almost makes you a believer on the spot.
might
Without books, we might just melt into the airwaves and be just another set of blips.
cannot graduation help learn millions piece
You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.
careless class editors ideal lap last malevolent meddling reviewers steer struggle words writers
Writers take words seriously-perhaps the last professional class that does-and they struggle to steer their own through the crosswinds of meddling editors and careless typesetters and obtuse and malevolent reviewers into the lap of the ideal reader.
faith gloomy life witness
I don't know; I think I'd be gloomy without some faith that there is a purpose and there is a kind of witness to my life.
life
My life is, in a sense, trash. My life is only that of which the residue is my writing.