John Updike

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all. ↗

— John Updike

#artists #behalf #content #distinguishes #entertainers

There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes. ↗

— John Updike

#dear #hearts #new #pleasing #rocks

There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring off, but which the middle-aged man can't. ↗

— John Updike

#goes #man #middle-aged #middle-aged man #off

Truth should not be forced; it should simply manifest itself, like a woman who has in her privacy reflected and coolly decided to bestow herself upon a certain man. ↗

— John Updike

#certain #decided #forced #her #herself

Until the 20th century it was generally assumed that a writer had said what he had to say in his works. ↗

— John Updike

#assumed #century #generally #had #his

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

— John Updike

#daily #extent #great #great extent #others

Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone. ↗

— John Updike

#bloom #dare #decay #disreputable #early

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

— John Updike

#good #good story #inner #lets #old

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. ↗

— John Updike

#breathing #certain #offers #room #space

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world. ↗

— John Updike

#few #few men #foolish #goodness #hence