760 Quotes by John Updike

Whatever art offered the men and women of previous eras, what it offers our own, it seems to me, is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit. The town I grew up in had many vacant lots; when I go back now, the vacant lots are gone. They were a luxury, just as tigers and rhinoceri, in the crowded world that is making, are luxuries. Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots – places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.

But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it.

That’s the trouble with caring about anybody, you begin to feel overprotective. Then you begin to feel crowded.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of. Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.

As souls must cry when they awaken in tiny babies and find themselves far from heaven.

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

The days are short, The sun a spark Hung thin between The dark and dark.

Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots – places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.

It’s spring! Farewell To chills and colds! The blushing, girlish World unfolds Each flower, leaf And blade of sod – Small letters sent To her from God.