760 Quotes by John Updike

When the first blooms came they were like the single big flower Oriental prostitutes wear on the sides of their heads…But when the hemispheres of blossom appear in crowds they remind him of nothing so much as hats worn by cheap girls to church on Easter.

... full of the belief that a conspiracy of women upholds the world.

I think “taste” is a social concept and not an artistic one. I’m willing to show good taste, if I can, in somebody else’s living room, but our reading life is too short for a writer to be in any way polite. Since his words enter into another’s brain in silence and intimacy, he should be as honest and explicit as we are with ourselves.

He settles back with a small handful of cashews; dry-roasted, they have a little acid sting to them, the tang of poison that he likes.

Being a divorcee in a small town is a little like playing Monopoly; eventually you land on all the properties.

You were never in Texas,” she says.He remembers the house on that strange treeless residential street, the green night growing up from the prairie, the flowers in the window, and says, “Absolutely I was.”“Doing what?”“Serving Uncle.”“Oh, in the Army; well that doesn’t count. Everybody’s been to Texas with the Army.”“You order whatever you think is good,” Rabbit tells Tothero.

The army was kept in as good state of fitness as the funds would allow.

Those born rich are harder to please than those born poor.

I don't think about politics," Rabbit says. "That's one of my Goddam precious American rights, not to think about politics.