Quotes from John Updike
My interest generally is the hidden Americans; the ones who live far away from the headlines.
- John Updike
Figure out where you're going before you go there: he was told that a long time ago.
- John Updike
If she'd been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem.
- John Updike
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
- John Updike
Billy Collins writes lovely poems. Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides.
- John Updike
In the vacuum of the heart love falls forever.
- John Updike
Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered.
- John Updike
Love makes the air light.
- John Updike
A Christian novelist tries to describe the world as it is.
- John Updike
The first author I met socially was Joyce Cary.
- John Updike
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
I should mention something that nobody ever thinks about, but proofreading takes a lot of time. After you write something, there are these proofs that keep coming, and there's this panicky feeling that 'This is me and I must make it better.'
- John Updike