All John Updike Quotes
- I feel old only when I look at my hands or at myself in the mirror. Feel
- I have never liked haircuts. Haircuts
- Young or old, a writer sends a book into the world, not himself. Book
- A Christian novelist tries to describe the world as it is. Christian
- I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic-strip novel masterpiece. Arise
- For whatever crispness and animation my writing has I give some credit to the cartoonist manque. Animation
- Authors should be honored only for their works. Authors
- The study of literature threatens to become a kind of paleontology of failure, and criticism a supercilious psychoanalysis of authors. Authors
- Somehow, it is hard to dislike a man once you have played a round of golf with him. Dislike
- My golf is so delicate, so tenuously wired together with silent inward prayers, exhortations and unstable visualizations, that the sheer pressure of an additional pair… Additional
- Imagine writing a poem with a sweating, worried-looking boy handing you a different pencil at the end of every word. My golf, you may say,… Boy
- 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… Ancient
- By the mid-17th century, telescopes had improved enough to make visible the seasonally growing and shrinking polar ice caps on Mars, and features such as… Caps
- The substance of fictional architecture is not bricks and mortar but evanescent consciousness. Architecture
- The dwelling places of Europe have an air of inheritance, or cumulative possession - a hive occupied by generations of bees. Air
- A house, having been willfully purchased and furnished, tells us more than a body, and its description is a foremost resource of the art of… Art
- In tennis, there is the forehand, the backhand, the overhead smash and the drop volley, all with a different grip. All
- Golf at its measured pace permits an electric excess of mental activity. Activity
- Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light onto the sidewalk. They civilize their neighborhoods. Bookstores
- When I went away to college, I marveled at the wealth of bookstores around Harvard Square. Bookstores
- For some of us, books are intrinsic to our sense of personal identity. Books
- A seventeenth-century house can be recognized by its steep roof, massive central chimney and utter porchlessness. Some of those houses have a second-story overhang, emphasizing… Central
- A seventeenth-century house tends to be short on frills like hallways and closets; you must improvise. Century
- Reminiscence and self-parody are part of remaining true to oneself. Oneself
- New York is a city with virtually no habitable public space - only private spaces expensively maintained within the general disaster. City