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John Updike Quotes

I can’t bear to finish things, beyond a certain point they get heavy. There’s something so dead about a finished painting Picture Quote #1

For a long time, I was under the impression that ‘Terry and the Pirates’ was the best comic strip in the United States Picture Quote #1

I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic-strip novel masterpiece Picture Quote #1

My attempt has been really to, beyond making a record of contemporary life, which is what you inevitably do, is trying to make beautiful books - books that are in some way beautiful, that are models of how to use the language, models of honest feeling, models of care Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

It’s sort of good to see your vocation as a daily task and have fairly modest expectations for financial or reward in other coin - glory, love, whatever Picture Quote #1

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My last vivid boyhood fright from books came when I was 15; I was visiting my uncle and aunt in Greenwich, and, emboldened by my success with ‘The Waste Land,’ I opened their copy of ‘Ulysses.’ The whiff of death off those remorseless, closely written pages overpowered me. So: back to soluble mysteries, and jokes that were not cosmic Picture Quote #1

I would rather be seated between any two women than any two men at a dinner party Picture Quote #1

Golf’s ultimate moral instruction directs us to find within ourselves a pivotal center of enjoyment: relax into a rhythm that fits the hills and swales, and play the shot at hand - not the last one, or the next one, but the one at your feet, in the poison ivy, where you put it Picture Quote #1

I was raised in the Depression, when there was a great sense of dog-eat-dog and people fighting over scraps Picture Quote #1

We are drawn to artists who tell us that art is difficult to do and takes a spiritual effort, because we are still puritan enough to respect a strenuous spiritual effort Picture Quote #1

Living is a compromise, between doing what you want and doing what other people want Picture Quote #1

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The dwelling places of Europe have an air of inheritance, or cumulative possession - a hive occupied by generations of bees Picture Quote #1

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life Picture Quote #1

Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg Picture Quote #1

I know more about what it’s like to be elderly and infirm and kind of stupid, the way you get forgetful, but on the other hand I’m a littler, wiser, dare we say? The word ‘wisdom’ has kind of faded out of our vocabulary, but yeah, I’m a little wiser Picture Quote #1

I was trying to support a family with writing. I didn’t have a private income. I had no other profession Picture Quote #1

My interest generally is the hidden Americans; the ones who live far away from the headlines Picture Quote #1

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I’m trying to get the terrorist out of the bugaboo category and into the category of a fellow human being Picture Quote #1

Memories, impressions and emotions from the first 20 years on earth are most writers’ main material; little that comes afterward is quite so rich and resonant Picture Quote #1

Unlike the older, more humanly shaped arts, which begin with a seed and accumulate their form organically, photography clips its substance out of an actual continuum Picture Quote #1

To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit Picture Quote #1

America is beyond power; it acts as in a dream, as a face of God. Wherever America is, there is freedom, and wherever America is not, madness rules with chains, darkness strangles millions. Beneath her patient bombers, paradise is possible Picture Quote #1

[I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it Picture Quote #1

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Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth’s many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more Picture Quote #1

New York is a city with virtually no habitable public space - only private spaces expensively maintained within the general disaster Picture Quote #1

Families, doing everything for each other out of imagined obligation and always getting in each other’s way, what a tangle Picture Quote #1

The good ending dismisses us with a touch of ceremony and throws a backward light of significance over the story just read. It makes it, as they say, or unmakes it. A weak beginning is forgettable, but the end of a story bulks in the reader’s mind like the giant foot in a foreshortened photograph Picture Quote #1

There is a great deal of busywork to a writer’s life, as to a professor’s life, a great deal of work that matters only in that, if you don’t do it, your desk becomes very full of papers. So, there is a lot of letter answering and a certain amount of speaking, though I try to keep that at a minimum Picture Quote #1

We don’t really want to think that the artist is only very skilled, that he has merely devoted his life to perfecting a certain set of intelligible skills Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

I can’t bear to finish things, beyond a certain point they get heavy. There’s something so dead about a finished painting. (John Updike Quotes) For a long time, I was under the impression that ‘Terry and the Pirates’ was the best comic strip in the United States. (John Updike Quotes) I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic-strip novel masterpiece. (John Updike Quotes) My attempt has been really to, beyond making a record of contemporary life, which is what you inevitably do, is trying to make beautiful books - books that are in some way beautiful, that are models of how to use the language, models of honest feeling, models of care. (John Updike Quotes) 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. (John Updike Quotes) It’s sort of good to see your vocation as a daily task and have fairly modest expectations for financial or reward in other coin - glory, love, whatever. (John Updike Quotes) My last vivid boyhood fright from books came when I was 15; I was visiting my uncle and aunt in Greenwich, and, emboldened by my success with ‘The Waste Land,’ I opened their copy of ‘Ulysses.’ The whiff of death off those remorseless, closely written pages overpowered me. So: back to soluble mysteries, and jokes that were not cosmic. (John Updike Quotes) I would rather be seated between any two women than any two men at a dinner party (John Updike Quotes) Golf’s ultimate moral instruction directs us to find within ourselves a pivotal center of enjoyment: relax into a rhythm that fits the hills and swales, and play the shot at hand - not the last one, or the next one, but the one at your feet, in the poison ivy, where you put it. (John Updike Quotes) I was raised in the Depression, when there was a great sense of dog-eat-dog and people fighting over scraps. (John Updike Quotes) We are drawn to artists who tell us that art is difficult to do and takes a spiritual effort, because we are still puritan enough to respect a strenuous spiritual effort. (John Updike Quotes) Living is a compromise, between doing what you want and doing what other people want (John Updike Quotes) The dwelling places of Europe have an air of inheritance, or cumulative possession - a hive occupied by generations of bees. (John Updike Quotes) Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life (John Updike Quotes) Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. (John Updike Quotes) I know more about what it’s like to be elderly and infirm and kind of stupid, the way you get forgetful, but on the other hand I’m a littler, wiser, dare we say? The word ‘wisdom’ has kind of faded out of our vocabulary, but yeah, I’m a little wiser. (John Updike Quotes) I was trying to support a family with writing. I didn’t have a private income. I had no other profession. (John Updike Quotes) My interest generally is the hidden Americans; the ones who live far away from the headlines (John Updike Quotes) I’m trying to get the terrorist out of the bugaboo category and into the category of a fellow human being. (John Updike Quotes) Memories, impressions and emotions from the first 20 years on earth are most writers’ main material; little that comes afterward is quite so rich and resonant. (John Updike Quotes) Unlike the older, more humanly shaped arts, which begin with a seed and accumulate their form organically, photography clips its substance out of an actual continuum. (John Updike Quotes) To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit. (John Updike Quotes) America is beyond power; it acts as in a dream, as a face of God. Wherever America is, there is freedom, and wherever America is not, madness rules with chains, darkness strangles millions. Beneath her patient bombers, paradise is possible. (John Updike Quotes) [I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it. (John Updike Quotes) Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth’s many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more. (John Updike Quotes) New York is a city with virtually no habitable public space - only private spaces expensively maintained within the general disaster. (John Updike Quotes) Families, doing everything for each other out of imagined obligation and always getting in each other’s way, what a tangle. (John Updike Quotes) The good ending dismisses us with a touch of ceremony and throws a backward light of significance over the story just read. It makes it, as they say, or unmakes it. A weak beginning is forgettable, but the end of a story bulks in the reader’s mind like the giant foot in a foreshortened photograph. (John Updike Quotes) There is a great deal of busywork to a writer’s life, as to a professor’s life, a great deal of work that matters only in that, if you don’t do it, your desk becomes very full of papers. So, there is a lot of letter answering and a certain amount of speaking, though I try to keep that at a minimum. (John Updike Quotes) We don’t really want to think that the artist is only very skilled, that he has merely devoted his life to perfecting a certain set of intelligible skills. (John Updike Quotes)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 - 13