John Updike quotes - page 10

[Mim, to Nelson, about Annabelle] "She's letting herself go. You can't afford in life to do that if you're gonna contend." (John Updike)
As history makes clear, there is no keeping barbarians out. They always eventually win. Energy comes from below, from the excluded and oppressed, from those with nothing to lose. It's like water in a pot on a stove: the hottest, on the bottom, rises to the top. View quote
John Updike
Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being. View quote
John Updike
Life is a roller coaster, you have your ups and downs unless you fall off. View quote
John Updike
As movers and the moved both know, books are heavy freight, the weight of refrigerators and sofas broken up into cardboard boxes. They make us think twice about changing addresses. View quote
John Updike
I miss only, and then only a little, in the late afternoon, the sudden white laughter that like heat lightning bursts in an atmosphere where souls are trying to serve the impossible. View quote
John Updike
It was true of my generation, that the movies were terribly vivid and instructive. View quote
John Updike
It's no disgrace to, in the end, restore order. And punish the wicked and, in some way, reward the righteous. View quote
John Updike
His upper half was hidden from me, I knew best his legs. View quote
John Updike
Vocations drying up, nobody wants to be selfless any more, everybody wants their fun. View quote
John Updike
I think "taste” is a social concept and not an artistic one. (John Updike)
Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe. View quote
John Updike
The pain of the world is a crater all these syrups and pills a thousandfold would fail to fill. View quote
John Updike
The fullness ends when we give Nature her ransom, when we make children for her. Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks. View quote
John Updike
We live down here among shadows, shadows among shadows. View quote
John Updike
Facts are generally overesteemed. For most practical purposes, a thing is what men think it is. View quote
John Updike
Not only are selves conditional but they die. Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time? View quote
John Updike
[Harry having drawn at golf] The shape of his collapse clings to him. Who says the universe isn't soaked in disgrace? View quote
John Updike
[coming away from the doctor's after a check-up] Get interested is the advice, but in truth you are interested in less and less. It's Nature's way. View quote
John Updike
[Nelson] "... I get none of the things a man's supposed to get from a wife." "What are those?" Janice is truly interested; she has never heard a man spell it out. He makes a cross evasive face. "You know – don't play naïve. Reassurance. Affection. Make the guy think he's great even if he isn't." View quote
John Updike
[Judy, 8, is watching TV] He tells Judy, "Better pack it in, sweetie. Another big day tomorrow: we're going to go to the beach and sailing." But his voice comes out listless, and perhaps that is the saddest loss time brings, the lessening of excitement about anything. (John Updike)
[Harry to Janice, about the financial situation] "...You're in real trouble." "I know... But you have to have faith. You've taught me that." "I have?" He is pleasantly surprised, to think that in thirty-three years he has taught her anything. "Faith in what?" View quote
John Updike
[Harry, talking about the doctor who came to the ward and then went away. ] "That guy has a thing about potato chips and hot dogs. If God didn't want us to eat salt and fat, why did He make them taste so good?" View quote
John Updike
[at the hospital, Janice speaking to Dr Olman in Harry's presence in the ward] "What's wrong with his heart, exactly?" View quote
John Updike
[Pru, to Harry] She tells him, "You were one of the things I liked about Nelson. Maybe I thought Nelson would grow into somebody like you." "Maybe he did. You don't get to see what a bastard I can be." View quote
John Updike