John Updike Quotes

What more fiendish proof of cosmic irresponsibility than a Nature which, having invented sex as a way to mix genes, then permits to arise, amid all its perfumed and hypnotic inducements to mate, a tireless tribe of spirochetes and viruses that torture and kill us for following orders?

John Updike

• Nature
• Sex

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Quotes to Explore

• I found out that there was this project called the 'Great Green Wall' where they wanted to plant trees across the Sahara desert, and the idea was born that I wanted to create a support structure for that initiative.

  

  Magnus Larsson
  • Great
  • Support
  • Wall

• Whenever I dream about flying, it's the best feeling in the world.

  

  Kate Mara
  • World
  • Dream
  • Feeling

• But you have to understand that I consider myself a very modest artist, or whatever, and not of importance really at all - it is quite embarrassing to me to be asked my opinion about things. I am only a wee Scottish poet on the outside of everything.

  

  Ian Hamilton Finlay
  • Artist
  • Poet
  • Embarrassing

• I think that when we strip people down, most of us want the same things. People just have very different views of how to get there.

  

  Dan Gilbert
  • People
  • Different
  • Think

• Unless a Western's made money - doesn't matter who made the money, doesn't matter what the subject is - if the last one didn't make any money, you can't make another one for a four-year period. Westerns more than any genre.

  

  Val Kilmer
  • Money
  • You
  • Period

• I had a wonderful mother who wanted my sister and me to have everything, even though money was a very prominent thing we didn't have. But we had a very happy childhood - pretty much ideal, in fact.

  

  Natalie Babbitt
  • Money
  • Happy
  • Mother

• Many women do not want to venture out into the 'opinion world' until they are certain of themselves, the facts, and that they are right. They are afraid of being shot down. The result is often silence.

  

  Madeleine M. Kunin
  • World
  • Women
  • Opinion

• I never know what is going to have that 'X' factor and what isn't.

  

  Cameron Mackintosh
  • Know
  • Never
  • Going

• Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Great
  • Mother
  • Effort

• I listen to a mixture of old jazz, contemporary, pop, some world beat stuff and various odds and ends.

  

  Walter Becker Steely Dan
  • World
  • Old
  • Jazz

• I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

  

  Carlisle Floyd
  • Music
  • Me
  • Kind

• For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown.

  

  A. R. Ammons
  • Small
  • Need
  • Unknown

• For me, temptation is life and I have a gargantuan appetite for everything.

  

  Felix Dennis
  • Life
  • Me
  • Temptation

• Teachability and trust always leads to total obedience.

  

  Ed Townsend
  • Trust
  • Always
  • Obedience

• I sometimes just don't like to see the Ultimate Fighting. I just find it, as a martial artist, I just find it too violent.

  

  Jackie Chan
  • Fighting
  • Sometimes
  • Artist

• I have this concept that I call 'Combo Meals.' The idea is that I start with the kids' meal and then add a few more ingredients, and it becomes the adult meal. This way I'm not making two entirely separate dishes. I'm just simply adding on to what I'm already making.

  

  Tamra Davis
  • Kids
  • Way
  • Start

• Whenever I do something, it is rooted in the Indian opportunity.

  

  Vijay Mallya
  • Opportunity
  • Something

• I see it every day: People trying to create a home that somebody else tells them they should have. I don't care if it's a magazine or a bossy friend - when somebody says, 'This is what's elegant, this is what's trendy,' if it doesn't represent you, you're not going to be happy.

  

  Nate Berkus
  • People
  • Trying
  • Home

• My mom got me into some commercials, and I basically, I guess, just got out of my shell I was in at the time because I can't remember. I've just been blessed ever since.

  

  Bailee Madison
  • Time
  • Remember
  • Mom

• Because of the nature of my brand, it's so important our readers know it really is me behind my keyboard.

  

  Brit Morin
  • Important
  • Nature

• No doubt the great majority of them are in the cemetery long ago, and I suppose the rest of us will join them before long. Speaking for myself I am willing; in fact I believe I have been willing ever since I was eighteen years old; not urgent, but willing, merely willing.

  

  Mark Twain
  • Great
  • Believe
  • Long

• I'll tell you where the injustice is. It's with the person earning £12,000 to £15,000-a-year who is being asked to be restrained by their business or employer. Yet the taxpayer has bailed out the banks, so why are they not showing restraint?

  

  Prince Andrew
  • Why
  • Business

• I've still got lots of writing in me. I have not left journalism, but I put it on hold to focus on acting. I love actors. I think it's a crazy thing to do with your life, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them.

  

  Liane Balaban
  • Life
  • Writing
  • Respect

• What more fiendish proof of cosmic irresponsibility than a Nature which, having invented sex as a way to mix genes, then permits to arise, amid all its perfumed and hypnotic inducements to mate, a tireless tribe of spirochetes and viruses that torture and kill us for following orders?

  

  John Updike
  • Nature
  • Sex