All John Updike Quotes
- I secretly understood: the primitive appeal of the hearth. Television is - its irresistible charm - a fire. Appeal
- I can't bear to finish things, beyond a certain point they get heavy. There's something so dead about a finished painting. Bear
- Do what the heart commands. The heart is our only guide. Command
- Is not the decisive difference between comedy and tragedy that tragedy denies us another chance? Another Chance
- The yearning for an afterlife is the opposite of selfish: it is love and praise for the world that we are privileged, in this complex… Afterlife
- Yes, there is a ton of information on the Web, but much of it is egregiously inaccurate, unedited, unattributed and juvenile. Egregiously
- Christianity isn't looking for a rainbow. If it were... we'd pass out opium at services. We're trying to serve God, not be God. Christianity
- You know how it is with fathers, you never escape the idea that maybe after all they're right. All
- Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. Adventure
- The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop. Adultery
- Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of… Admit
- If men do not keep on speaking terms with children, they cease to be men, and become merely machines for eating and for earning money. Become Merely
- Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the jobs of life. Enables
- The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever. Essential
- When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas. Aim
- Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone. Alone
- America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy. America
- We are most alive when we're in love. Alive
- Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. Descending
- What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. Appreciation
- Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered. Arrives
- To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client. Act
- Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea. Censorship
- The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell… Arising
- We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one. All