Home / Quotes / Quote by John Updike

Quote by John Updike

“I write about, more or less, everything I can think of, that is I stretch my imagination as far as it'll go. I am kind of stuck in the middle as far as my life goes, and hence my imagination tends to zero in on things which are indeed in the middle. That is, I don't write about the very rich, who I scarcely know, or the very poor who I don't know very well either.”

Quote by John Updike

Author

John Updike was an American novelist known for his profound insights into middle-class life and his delicate narrative skills. His works spanned a wide range of genres from short stories to novels, including the classic 'Rabbit, Run' series and 'The Centaur'. more

You May Also Like

“I think it's the sentence-to-sentence pleasures, the little surprises of a surprising style of an acute style, and also the way things happen one after the other, that makes a book interesting to read page to page”

Thinking Way Littles Book Happens Pleasure Interesting Style Pages Surprise Sentences Things Happen Surprising

Book:Conversations with John Updike

Source: Conversations with John Updike

“I did feel as though a number of critics had appointed themselves, when they sat down with a new book of mine, to rectify what they felt to be was my inflated reputation and so that the book in hand was not really given a chance but made a kind of weapon in the general attempt to bring me down to size.”

Feels Kind Made Book Hands Given Felt Chance Numbers Mines Weapons Critics Size Reputation Sat New Books Rectify Given A Chance Bring Me Down

Book:Conversations with John Updike

Source: Conversations with John Updike

“So, you know, I think any life has in it enough material, enough points of departure, to fuel a writer's career and that we shouldn't worry about what we're not but to try to focus on what we are and what we do know.”

Thinking Knows Trying Enough Careers Worry Focus Materials Fuel Departure

Book:Conversations with John Updike

Source: Conversations with John Updike

“I think people do look to writers to tell the truth in a way that nobody else quite will, not politicians or ministers or sociologists. A writer's job, is to, by way of fiction, somehow describe the way we live. And to me, this seems an important task, very worth doing, and I think also, to the reading public, it seems, even though they might not articulate it, it seems to them something worth doing also.”

People Thinking Way Looks Important Seems Might Jobs Reading Fiction Politician Tasks Ministers Telling The Truth Sociologists

Author:John Updike

“Seemed to me important in writing about people to be able to describe the sexual transactions between them. It's - for many people it's the height of, what they see, of ecstasy and poetry is in their sexual encounters. And furthermore, personality - human personality does not end in the bedroom, but persists.”

People Writing Humans Doe Important Ends Able Personality Height Encounters Poetry Is Ecstasy Bedroom Persist Transactions Human Personality

Author:John Updike

“The - writing is a kind of act of aggression, and a person who is not aggressive in his normal, may I say, intercourse with humanity might well be an aggressive writer.”

Writing Wells Kind May Persons Might Humanity Normal Aggressive Aggression Intercourse

Author:John Updike

“I didn't consider myself a huge baby person. I`m not like, "Oh my god! I want to hold every baby!" And some women just have that engraved in their minds.”

Want Mind Persons Huge Baby Engraved

Author:Rachel Dratch

“It's interesting that people always want to ask me and a lot of working mothers, how do you do it? And it's like well, just like everybody else. It proves it's a bad question.”

People Want Wells Mother Asks Interesting Prove Ask Me Prove It

Author:Amy Poehler

“You have moments of clarity, things become clear to you that you didn't understand before. But there's never any making ends meet or finding any time of longstanding peace of mind about something.”

Mind Ends Moments Clear Findings Clarity Peace Of Mind Moments Of Clarity

Author:Bruce Springsteen

“Sometimes I do an automatic songs, songs that you don't really think about, or work on. You just look back and it sorta surprises you.”

Thinking Looks Sometimes Song Surprise

Author:Bruce Springsteen