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 the facts in the mirror of art.

Quote by John Updike

Topics: John Updike Quotes

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of...

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of...

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them

The city overwhelmed our expectations. The Kiplingesque grandeur of Waterloo Station, the Eliotic despondency of...

The city overwhelmed our expectations. The Kiplingesque grandeur of Waterloo Station, the Eliotic despondency of...

The creative writer uses his life as well as being its victim; he can control,...

The creative writer uses his life as well as being its victim; he can control,...

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of...

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of...

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions,...

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions,...

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would...

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would...

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own...

A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own...

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the...

From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the...

We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent,...

We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent,...

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying

The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of...

The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of...

It was one of history's great love stories, the mutually profitable romance which Hollywood and...

It was one of history's great love stories, the mutually profitable romance which Hollywood and...

Writers take words seriously-perhaps the last professional class that does-and they struggle to steer their...

Writers take words seriously-perhaps the last professional class that does-and they struggle to steer their...

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it...

The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it...

Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had...

Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had...