760 Quotes by John Updike

I’m somewhat shy about the brutal facts of being a carnivore. I don’t like meat to look like animals. I prefer it in the form of sausages, hamburger and meat loaf, far removed from the living thing.

We must have sinned greatly, at some juncture long buried in our protozoic past, to deserve such a universe.

Why is the world so elaborate, if it has no purpose? Think of the care that goes into the least little insect and weed around us. You say you love me; then you must love life. Life is a gift, for which we must give something back.

Walking toward the light. None of us lives in the light; we can only walk toward it, with the eyes and legs God has given us.

He doesn’t blame people for many sin, but he does hate uncoordination, the root of all evil, as he feels it, for without coordination there can be no order, no connecting.

Which witch is which?

Weeds don’t know they’re weeds.

There are some women that don’t do it for some men. That’s why they turn out so many models.

I once did something right. I played first-rate basketball. I really did. And after you’re first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick out of being second-rate.