John Updike

Explore 12 quotes by John Updike

The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop.

John Updike

Couples

More information about this quote

Topic

Infidelity

Author

John Updike

Source

Couples

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Couples. Alfred A. Knopf, 1968, ch. 5.

Our noise for some seconds passed beyond excitement into a kind of immense open anguish, a wailing, a cry to be saved. But immortality is nontransferable. The papers said that the others players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he refused. Gods do not answer letters.

John Updike

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu

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Topic

Athletes Heroes

Speaker

On Ted Williams's final game at Fenway Park.

Author

John Updike

Source

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu The New Yorker

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Updike, John. "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." New Yorker, 22 Oct. 1960.

Current Citation

Updike, John. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu. Library of America, 2010.

To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given.

John Updike

Self-Consciousness

More information about this quote

Topic

War

Author

John Updike

Source

Self-Consciousness

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989, ch. 4.

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

John Updike

Hugging the Shore

More information about this quote

Topic

Critics

Author

John Updike

Source

Hugging the Shore

Language

English

Time

1983 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Hugging the Shore. Alfred A. Knopf, 1983, foreword.

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

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Dreams

Author

John Updike

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. Knopf, 1989, ch. 3.

Some sense of religious mission is part of being American.

John Updike

Quoted in The New York Review of Books

More information about this quote

Topic

American character America

Speaker

John Updike

Source

The New York Review of Books

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Quoted in "God's Country" by Michael Wood. New York Book Review, 29 Feb. 1996.

That's one of my Goddam precious American rights, not to think about politics.

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Indifference to politics

Author

John Updike

Source

Rabbit Redux

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Rabbit Redux. Alfred A. Knopf, 1971, ch. 1.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

America

Author

John Updike

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Updike, John. "How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time." The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 1972.

Current Citation

Updike, John. "How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time." Problems and Other Stories. Knopf, 1979.

Without the cold war, what's the point of being an American?

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Cold War America

Author

John Updike

Source

Rabbit at Rest

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Rabbit at Rest. Alfred A. Knopf, 1990, ch. 3.

Is not the decisive difference between comedy and tragedy that tragedy denies us another chance?

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Comedy Tragedy

Author

John Updike

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989, ch. 6.

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and... He does it without destroying something else.

John Updike

Quoted in Paris Review

More information about this quote

Topic

Artists Nature of art Art Creation

Speaker

John Updike

Source

Paris Review

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. "John Updike, The Art of Fiction No. 43." Interviewed by Charles Thomas Samuels. The Paris Review, Issue 45, Winter 1968.

A soggy little island huffing and puffing to keep up with Western Europe.

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Great Britain England

Speaker

On England.

Author

John Updike

Source

Notes of a Temporary Resident

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. "Notes of a Temporary Resident." The Listener. c. 1969.