All John Updike Quotes
- A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so… Erratic
- 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… Age
- Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews. Drama
- What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce. Mark Twain Women are an alien race set down among us. Alien
- Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying. Constant
- In asking forgiveness of women for our mythologizing of their bodies, for being unreal about them, we can only appeal to their own sexuality, which… Appeal
- I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone. Alone
- When we try in good faith to believe in materialism, in the exclusive reality of the physical, we are asking our selves to step aside;… All
- Art imitates Nature in this; not to dare is to dwindle. Art
- The guarantee that our self enjoys an intended relation to the outer world is most, if not all, we ask from religion. God is the… All
- There is no such thing as static happiness. Happiness is a mixed thing, a thing compounded of sacrifices, and losses, and betrayals. Betrayal
- That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real… All
- Fiction is nothing less than the subtlest instrument for self-examination and self-display that Mankind has invented yet. Display
- In all the green world nothing feels as good as a woman's good nature. All
- The difficulty with humorists is that they will mix what they believe with what they don't; whichever seems likelier to win an effect. Believe
- Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we… Awakened
- Women are an alien race set down among us. Alien
- Sex is like money; only too much is enough. Inspirational
- To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a… Arrangements
- Movies took you right up to the edge but kept you safe. Edge
- Man is a means for turning things into spirit and turning spirit into things. Inspirational
- In a country this large and a language even larger ... there ought to be a living for somebody who cares and wants to entertain… Care
- The crooked little tomato branches, pulpy and pale as if made of cheap green paper, broke under the weight of so much fruit; there was… Branches
- Life is a razor, you are always in hot water or a scrape. Hot
- Life is a roller coaster, you have your ups and downs unless you fall off. Coaster