The quotations of

John Updike

American novelist, poet

1932–2009

15 quotes, most often on Writing, Art and Religion.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.
“How to Love America and Leave it at the Same Time,” Problems and Other Stories (1979)
- America
- Happiness
We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.
A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.
“They Thought They Were Better” in TIME magazine (21 July 1980)
- Leadership
The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one’s obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all.
On J. D. Salinger, from a review of his Franny and Zooey, in Studies in J. D. Salinger: Reviews, Essays, and Critiques of The Catcher in the Rye and other Fiction (1963) edited by Marvin Laser and Norman Fruman, p. 231
- Art
Sex is like money; only too much is enough.
Couples (1968), Ch. 5
- Money
- Sex
Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner.
Couples (1968), Ch. 1
- Marriage
The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.
The New Yorker (March 29, 1976)
- Comedy
Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
A Month of Sundays (1975)
- Time
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
Accepting Edward MacDowell Medal, New York Times (26 August 1981)
- Writing
Yes, there is a ton of information on the web, but much of it is egregiously inaccurate, unedited, unattributed and juvenile.
Speech at the Book Expo America Saturday Book & Author Breakfast (26 May 2006)
- Internet
Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.
Buchanan Dying: A Play (1974), Act I
- Government
Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe.
Self-Consciousness: Memoirs (1989), Ch. 6
- Religion
The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion.
Introduction to The Best American Short Stories of 1984 (1984)
- Religion
- Writing
From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the secrets to be discovered are so paltry and few.
Bech, A Book (1970)
Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art.
The New Yorker (30 July 1990)
- Art
- Change

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