---
title: "Best Writing Quotes by John Updike"
description: "74 Writing quotes by John Updike. Plus more from John Updike and more Writing sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/192/john-updike-396_admire_the-writers-we-tend-to-universally-admir_1218468.png"
---

> [The writers we tend to universally admire, like Beckett, or Kafka, or TS Eliot, are not very prolific.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-writers-we-tend-to-universally-admire-like-beckett-or-kafka-or-ts/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/192/john-updike-396_admire_the-writers-we-tend-to-universally-admir_1218468.png)

> [If my mother hadn't been trying to be a writer, I don't know if I would have thought of it myself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/if-my-mother-hadn-t-been-trying-to-be-a-writer-i-don-t-know-if-i/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32d/john-updike-396_been_if-my-mother-hadn-t-been-trying-to-be-a_866440.png)

> [I've always tried to write about America. It's very worth a writer's effort.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-ve-always-tried-to-write-about-america-it-s-very-worth-a-writer-s/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48c/john-updike-396_about_i-ve-always-tried-to-write-about-america_1887083.png)

> [I suppose sequels are inevitable for a writer of a certain age.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-suppose-sequels-are-inevitable-for-a-writer-of-a-certain-age/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8f6/john-updike-396_age_i-suppose-sequels-are-inevitable-for-a-w_782904.png)

> [Being a famous writer is a little like being a tall dwarf. You're on the edge of normality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/being-a-famous-writer-is-a-little-like-being-a-tall-dwarf-you-re-on/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2b8/john-updike-396_dwarfs_being-a-famous-writer-is-a-little-like-b_196774.png)

> [Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/writing-and-rewriting-are-a-constant-search-for-what-it-is-one-is/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/626/john-updike-396_constant_writing-and-rewriting-are-a-constant-sea_1560477.png)

> [The - writing is a kind of act of aggression, and a person who is not aggressive in his normal, may I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-writing-is-a-kind-of-act-of-aggression-and-a-person-who-is-not/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e29/john-updike-396_aggression_the-writing-is-a-kind-of-act-of-aggressi_1487248.png)

> [Some stories or passages are more difficult and demand more fussing with than others, but, in general, I'm a two-draft writer rather…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/some-stories-or-passages-are-more-difficult-and-demand-more-fussing/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c7/john-updike-396_demand_some-stories-or-passages-are-more-diffic_2515526.png)

> [An aging writer has the not insignificant satisfaction of a shelf of books behind him that, as they wait for their ideal…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/an-aging-writer-has-the-not-insignificant-satisfaction-of-a-shelf-of/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ee/john-updike-396_aging_an-aging-writer-has-the-not-insignifican_460763.png)

> [I find in my own writing that only fiction - and rarely, a poem - fully tests me to the kind of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-find-in-my-own-writing-that-only-fiction-and-rarely-a-poem-fully/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66a/john-updike-396_feel_i-find-in-my-own-writing-that-only-ficti_2607267.png)

> [Perhaps I have written fiction because everything unambiguously expressed seems somehow crass to me; and when the subject is myself, I want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/perhaps-i-have-written-fiction-because-everything-unambiguously/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6af/john-updike-396_because_perhaps-i-have-written-fiction-because-e_2704969.png)

> [I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-have-never-believed-that-one-should-wait-until-one-is-inspired/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d3d/john-updike-396_ifs_i-have-never-believed-that-one-should-wa_1532465.png)

> [“To become less and transmit more, to replenish energy with wisdom - some such hope, at this more than midpoint in my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/to-become-less-and-transmit-more-to-replenish-energy-with-wisdom-some/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/131/john-updike-396_life_to-become-less-and-transmit-more-to-repl_663601.png)

> [I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-seem-most-instinctively-to-believe-in-the-human-value-of-creative/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/720/john-updike-396_believe_i-seem-most-instinctively-to-believe-in_1627948.jpg)

> [In a democracy in the 20th and 21st century, if you can't base your fiction upon ordinary people and the issues that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/in-a-democracy-in-the-20th-and-21st-century-if-you-can-t-base-your/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf9/john-updike-396_21st-century_in-a-democracy-in-the-20th-and-21st-cent_1464090.png)

> [If you look at the best-seller list, it is mostly thrillers. Very few books attempt to create an image of the life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/if-you-look-at-the-best-seller-list-it-is-mostly-thrillers-very-few/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/201/john-updike-396_best-sellers_if-you-look-at-the-best-seller-list-it-i_2967801.png)

> [I write about, more or less, everything I can think of, that is I stretch my imagination as far as it'll go.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-write-about-more-or-less-everything-i-can-think-of-that-is-i/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/714/john-updike-396_i-can_i-write-about-more-or-less-everything-i_1337283.jpg)

> [“My first thought, as a child, was that the artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/my-first-thought-as-a-child-was-that-the-artist-brings-something-into/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22d/john-updike-396_art_my-first-thought-as-a-child-was-that-the_2704619.png)

> [John Barth, I think, was really a writer of my own age and somewhat of my own temperament, although his books are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/john-barth-i-think-was-really-a-writer-of-my-own-age-and-somewhat-of/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/87e/john-updike-396_academic_john-barth-i-think-was-really-a-writer-o_897203.jpg)

> [The writer must face the fact that ordinary lives are what most people live most of the time, and that the novel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-writer-must-face-the-fact-that-ordinary-lives-are-what-most/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d35/john-updike-396_adventurous_the-writer-must-face-the-fact-that-ordin_2819532.jpg)

> [When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but to a vague spot a little to the east…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/when-i-write-i-aim-in-my-mind-not-toward-new-york-but-to-a-vague-spot/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40d/john-updike-396_aim_when-i-write-i-aim-in-my-mind-not-toward_2339346.png)

> [It skims in through the eye, and by means of the utterly delicate retina hurls shadows like insect legs inward for translation.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/it-skims-in-through-the-eye-and-by-means-of-the-utterly-delicate/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/be9/john-updike-396_asks_it-skims-in-through-the-eye-and-by-means_1176801.jpg)

> [My transition from wanting to be a cartoonist to wanting to be a writer may have come about through that friendly opposition,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/my-transition-from-wanting-to-be-a-cartoonist-to-wanting-to-be-a/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab4/john-updike-396_about_my-transition-from-wanting-to-be-a-carto_1814156.png)

> [ The illusion is an agreement between the reader and writer that this \[story\] will be like life. The emotional temperature drops when… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-illusion-is-an-agreement-between-the-reader-and-writer-that-this/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/03e/john-updike-396_agreement_the-illusion-is-an-agreement-between-the_2135947.png)

> [We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. ... Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it's up…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/we-re-past-the-age-of-heroes-and-hero-kings-most-of-our-lives-are/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/24d/john-updike-396_age_we-re-past-the-age-of-heroes-and-hero-ki_1945903.png)

> [In a country this large and a language even larger ... there ought to be a living for somebody who cares and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/in-a-country-this-large-and-a-language-even-larger-there-ought-to-be/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d88/john-updike-396_books_in-a-country-this-large-and-a-language-e_2641699.png)

> [The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-reader-knows-the-writer-better-than-he-knows-himself-but-the/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9a/john-updike-396_better_the-reader-knows-the-writer-better-than_3139340.png)

> [“I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to. The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-would-write-ads-for-deodorants-or-labels-for-catsup-bottles-if-i-2/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e3a/john-updike-396_writing_i-would-write-ads-for-deodorants-or-labe_2494380.png)

> [Try to develop actual work habits, and even though you have a busy life, try to reserve an hour, say - or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/try-to-develop-actual-work-habits-and-even-though-you-have-a-busy/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c73/john-updike-396_busy_try-to-develop-actual-work-habits-and-ev_1482247.png)

> [We all begin life as parasites within the mother, and writers begin their existence imitatively, within the body of letters.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/we-all-begin-life-as-parasites-within-the-mother-and-writers-begin/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/653/john-updike-396_body_we-all-begin-life-as-parasites-within-th_1441535.png)

> [A writer's self-consciousness, for which he is much scorned, is really a mode of interestedness, that inevitably turns outward.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/a-writer-s-self-consciousness-for-which-he-is-much-scorned-is-really/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bd4/john-updike-396_consciousness_a-writer-s-self-consciousness-for-which_2289538.png)

> [“I think “taste” is a social concept and not an artistic one. I’m willing to show good taste, if I can, in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-think-taste-is-a-social-concept-and-not-an-artistic-one-i-m-willing/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/951/john-updike-396_life_i-think-taste-is-a-social-concept-and-no_2001226.jpg)

> [In my first 15 or 20 years of authorship, I was almost never asked to give a speech or an interview. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/in-my-first-15-or-20-years-of-authorship-i-was-almost-never-asked-to/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed5/john-updike-396_almost_in-my-first-15-or-20-years-of-authorship_1237795.jpg)

> [There is a great deal of busywork to a writer's life, as to a professor's life, a great deal of work that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/there-is-a-great-deal-of-busywork-to-a-writer-s-life-as-to-a/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d3b/john-updike-396_amount_there-is-a-great-deal-of-busywork-to-a-w_2433942.png)

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## More by John Updike

> [Life is a roller coaster, you have your ups and downs unless you fall off.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/life-is-a-roller-coaster-you-have-your-ups-and-downs-unless-you-fall/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/children-are-not-a-zoo-of-entertainingly-exotic-creatures-but-an/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [I assume my stance, and take back the club, low, slowly; at the top, my eyes fog over, and my joints dip and swirl…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-assume-my-stance-and-take-back-the-club-low-slowly-at-the-top-my/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [The New England spirit does not seek solutions in a crowd; raw light and solitariness are less dreaded than welcomed as enhancers of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-new-england-spirit-does-not-seek-solutions-in-a-crowd-raw-light/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [I imagine most of that stuff on the information highway is roadkill anyway.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-imagine-most-of-that-stuff-on-the-information-highway-is-roadkill/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [Families, doing everything for each other out of imagined obligation and always getting in each other's way, what a tangle.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/families-doing-everything-for-each-other-out-of-imagined-obligation/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [“The fucking world is running out of gas.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-fucking-world-is-running-out-of-gas/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [The theme of old age doesn't seem to fascinate Hollywood.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-theme-of-old-age-doesn-t-seem-to-fascinate-hollywood/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [“The mind cannot fall asleep as long as it watches itself. Only when the mind moves unwatched and becomes absorbed in images that tug…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/the-mind-cannot-fall-asleep-as-long-as-it-watches-itself-only-when/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [“it was somehow wonderful of her to be, in every detail, herself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/it-was-somehow-wonderful-of-her-to-be-in-every-detail-herself/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [In fiction, imaginary people become realer to us than any named celebrity glimpsed in a series of rumored events, whose causes and subtler ramifications…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/in-fiction-imaginary-people-become-realer-to-us-than-any-named/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [“Her hair had been going gray as long as he could remember; she bundled it behind in a bun held with hairpins that he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/her-hair-had-been-going-gray-as-long-as-he-could-remember-she-bundled/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [Possession diminishes perception of value, immediately](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/possession-diminishes-perception-of-value-immediately/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [I can't bear to finish things, beyond a certain point they get heavy. There's something so dead about a finished painting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/i-can-t-bear-to-finish-things-beyond-a-certain-point-they-get-heavy/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

> [“Some people find fall depressing, others hate spring. I've always been a spring person myself. All that growth, you can feel Nature groaning, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/some-people-find-fall-depressing-others-hate-spring-i-ve-always-been/)

[John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/)

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                        "text": "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.",
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                        "text": "I find in my own writing that only fiction - and rarely, a poem - fully tests me to the kind of limits of what I know and what I feel.",
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                        "text": "Perhaps I have written fiction because everything unambiguously expressed seems somehow crass to me; and when the subject is myself, I want to jeer and weep.",
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                        "text": "I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again.",
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                        "text": "“To become less and transmit more, to replenish energy with wisdom - some such hope, at this more than midpoint in my life, is the reason why I write.”",
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                        "text": "I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as a mode of truth-telling, self-expression and homage to the twin miracles of creation and consciousness.",
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                        "text": "In a democracy in the 20th and 21st century, if you can't base your fiction upon ordinary people and the issues that engage them, then you are reduced to writing about spectacular unreal people. You know, James Bond or something, and you cook up adventures.",
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                        "text": "If you look at the best-seller list, it is mostly thrillers. Very few books attempt to create an image of the life we live. I knew there were writers who wore tweed coats and lived in Connecticut and somehow made a living, and that's what I aimed to do. I've tried to write as well as I can with books that say something to any reader.",
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                        "text": "I write about, more or less, everything I can think of, that is I stretch my imagination as far as it'll go. I am kind of stuck in the middle as far as my life goes, and hence my imagination tends to zero in on things which are indeed in the middle. That is, I don't write about the very rich, who I scarcely know, or the very poor who I don't know very well either.",
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                        "text": "“My first thought, as a child, was that the artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy.”",
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                        "text": "John Barth, I think, was really a writer of my own age and somewhat of my own temperament, although his books are very different from mine, and he has been a spokesman for the very ambitious, long, rather academic novel. But I don't think that what he is saying, so far as I understand it, is so very different from what I'm saying.",
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                        "text": "The writer must face the fact that ordinary lives are what most people live most of the time, and that the novel as a narration of the fantastic and the adventurous is really an escapist plot; that aesthetically, the ordinary, the banal, is what you must deal with.",
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                        "text": "When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but to a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas. I think of the books on library shelves, without their jackets, years old, and a countryish teen-aged boy finding them, and having them speak to him. The review, the stacks in Brentano's, are just hurdles to get over, to place the books on that shelf.",
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                        "text": "It skims in through the eye, and by means of the utterly delicate retina hurls shadows like insect legs inward for translation. Then an immense space opens up in silence and an endlessly fecund sub-universe the writer descends, and asks the reader to descend after him, not merely to gain instructions but also to experience delight, the delight of mind freed from matter and exultant in the strength it has stolen from matter.",
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                        "text": "My transition from wanting to be a cartoonist to wanting to be a writer may have come about through that friendly opposition, that even-handed pairing, of pictures and words.",
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                        "text": "The illusion is an agreement between the reader and writer that this [story] will be like life. The emotional temperature drops when you have footnotes.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. ... Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it's up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.",
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                        "text": "In a country this large and a language even larger ... there ought to be a living for somebody who cares and wants to entertain and instruct a reader.",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.",
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                        "text": "“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.”",
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                        "text": "Try to develop actual work habits, and even though you have a busy life, try to reserve an hour, say - or more - a day to write. Some very good things have been written on an hour a day.",
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                        "text": "We all begin life as parasites within the mother, and writers begin their existence imitatively, within the body of letters.",
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                        "text": "A writer's self-consciousness, for which he is much scorned, is really a mode of interestedness, that inevitably turns outward.",
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                        "text": "“I think “taste” is a social concept and not an artistic one. I’m willing to show good taste, if I can, in somebody else’s living room, but our reading life is too short for a writer to be in any way polite. Since his words enter into another’s brain in silence and intimacy, he should be as honest and explicit as we are with ourselves.”",
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