Writers take words seriously-perhaps the last professional class that does-and they struggle to steer their own through the crosswinds of meddling editors and careless typesetters and obtuse and malevolent reviewers into the lap of the ideal reader.

Quote by John Updike

Topics: Writers Quotes

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,...

There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their...

There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their...

There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring...

There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring...

Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for...

Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for...

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.

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...

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.

I secretly understood: the primitive appeal of the hearth. Television is-its irresistible charm-a fire.

I secretly understood: the primitive appeal of the hearth. Television is-its irresistible charm-a fire.

Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware...

Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware...

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

Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have...

Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have...

We are most alive when we're in love.

We are most alive when we're in love.

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing...

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing...

School is where you go between when your parents can't take you, and industry can't...

School is where you go between when your parents can't take you, and industry can't...

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the...

Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the...

For male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what...

For male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what...

An affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is...

An affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is...

A man desires praise that he may be reassured, that he may be quit of...

A man desires praise that he may be reassured, that he may be quit of...

It takes two hands to clap.

It takes two hands to clap.