John Updike Quotes
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
Quotes to Explore
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So people think I'm lying about my age all the time? It's the records that are wrong. I've never told anyone how old I am. The minute they ask me, I say 'That's none of your business.' So that means I've never once lied about my age. Now that's true!
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The difference between a violin and a viola is that a viola burns longer.
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In truth, opinion may be taken for understanding; understanding cannot be taken for opinion. How so? Surely because opinion may be deceived; understanding cannot be. If it could, it would not be understanding but opinion. For true understanding has not only certain truth, but the knowledge of truth.
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The environmental movement, like all political processes, reacts best to disasters. But these are very slow, very gradual disasters in the making.
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There are no opportune times for a penalty, and this is not one of those times.
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I know people think that a lot of sports stars are a little bit up themselves, but they all have their heroes, too.
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I love people who break boundaries and always create something new and fresh.
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It's a great feat for me to have broken my world record.
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I loathe bad theater and most theatre is very bad because it's repetitious, unexciting and, dangerously, it is sometimes praised for those things.
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The very idea of marriage is basic to recognition as equals in our society; any status short of that is inferior, unjust, and unconstitutional.
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Anti-religious sneers are a hallmark of perpetual adolescents.
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Acting is something that I always wanted, but I never paid attention to the notion that it might actually work out. You have all sorts of ideas about what you want to do - at one stage, I wanted to be a jockey - but this is the one that's a big deal.
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The University of South Carolina has always played a role in my life and the intellectual life of South Carolina.
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'Wicked' gave us a story that 'The Wizard of Oz' did not. Two sides to every story.
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Personal responsibility is not only recognizing the errors of our ways. Personal responsibility lies in our willingness and ability to correct those errors individually and collectively.
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I am the luckiest novelist in the world. I was a first-time novelist who wasn't awash in rejection slips, whose manuscript didn't disappear in slush piles. I have had a wonderful time.
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Whenever I write a new song, it always happens when I come back from Europe or Egypt or something like that. It's always from travelling.
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If I had been straight, I would have been an entirely different person. I would never have turned toward writing with a burning desire to confess, to understand, to justify myself in the eyes of others... I wouldn't have been impelled to live in New York and choose the hard poverty of bohemia over the soft comfort of the business world.
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Both the 228 Incident (White Terror in Taiwan) and the June 4 Incident (Tiananmen Square Incident in Beijing) are like mirrors, reminding the leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in soul-searching and learn lessons.
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I get such joy out of performing for people, and you can tell whether they like you or they don't like you the minute you walk out on the stage. And they don't even have to tell me that they had a good time. I know they had a good time.
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The furniture is comfortable to me. Rather than making a chair to sleep in or a machine to live it, it is better to make a bed. A straight chair is best for eating or writing. The third position is standing.
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The only really safe thing to do is to write a diary of where you've been, what time you went to bed, what you ate. If I wrote honestly about everything I think it'd be a disaster. It would cause a lot of trouble.
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I'm a Katy Perry fan, and I took my kids to go see her, and it was a great show, and she really can sing, and she really can play.
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Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
