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
life faces fame
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.
writing humanity may
The - writing is a kind of act of aggression, and a person who is not aggressive in his normal, may I say, intercourse with humanity might well be an aggressive writer.
sane sociable
We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.
book writing want
I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.
pain writing honey
Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.
people musician mysterious
Musicians are very mysterious and wonderful people to me; I don't know how they do it.
sex too-much enough
Sex is like money; only too much is enough.
memories people lovely
It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.
acceptance self perfection
Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self- solitude is the enemy of well- being.
memories drama drinking
Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews.
inspiration literature materials
Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered.
brick chelsea city fog grandeur nightmare pavement row sweating
The city overwhelmed our expectations. The Kiplingesque grandeur of Waterloo Station, the Eliotic despondency of the brick row in Chelsea the Dickensian nightmare of fog and sweating pavement and besmirched cornices.
socially
The first author I met socially was Joyce Cary.
bit lived visualize worn
The firmest house in my fiction, probably, is the little thick-walled sandstone farmhouse of 'The Centaur' and 'Of the Farm'; I had lived in that house, and can visualize every floorboard and bit of worn molding.