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"30 John Updike Quotes & Sayings

      American     /     View profile
Born: 18 March 1932. Died: 27 January 2009 | Novelist | Poet | Writer | Critic |

We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.

Survive Moment Last one
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What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.

Art Space Breathing Spirit
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Growth is betrayal.

Growth Betrayal
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No act is so private it does not seek applause.

Act Private Applause
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Sun and moon, sun and moon, time goes.

Sun Moon Time
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Nature may be defined as that which exists without guilt.

Nature Defined Exists Guilt
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Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

Critics Pastry
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Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

Dreams True Nature Incite
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If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.

You Guts People Price
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I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.

Want Write Book Head
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Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath.

Everybody You Act Breath
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We are cruel enough without meaning to be.

Cruel Meaning
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Hope bases vast premises upon foolish accidents and reads a word where, in fact, only a scribble exists.

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

Writing Criticism Fiction Poetry
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As souls must cry when they awaken in tiny babies and find themselves far from heaven

Souls Cry Awaken Heaven
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It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.

Easy Love People Memory
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Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

Activity Creative Cares Right
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Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.

Write Shield Hiding Pain
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Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us

Children Creatures Mirrors Human
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Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.

Laws Ghosts Country Earth
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In general the churches ... bore for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola: they promoted thirst without quenching it.

Churches Relation God Thirst
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Part of being human is being on the verge of disgrace.

Part Human Verge Disgrace
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The universe is a pointless, self running machine, and we are insignificant by-products, whom death will tuck back into oblivion, with or without holy fanfare.

Universe Machine By-products Death
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That's why we love disaster, Harry sees it, puts us back in touch with guilt and sends us crawling back to God

Love Disaster Guilt God
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There is no such thing as static happiness. Happiness is a mixed thing, a thing compounded of sacrifices, and losses, and betrayals.

Happiness Sacrifices Losses Betrayals
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We are most alive when we're in love.

Alive Love
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All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed.

Love Betrayal Life Armed
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History. The more of it you have the more you have to live it. After a little while there gets to be too much of it to memorize and maybe that's when empires start to decline.

History Live Memory Decline
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Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.

Celebrity Mask Eats Face
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Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.

Suspect Moment Thief
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John Updike Quotes & Sayings