I should mention something that nobody ever thinks about, but proofreading takes a lot of time. After you write something, there are these proofs that keep coming, and there's this panicky feeling that 'This is me and I must make it better.' John Updike comefeltlot share on social
I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles if I had to. John Updike bottlecatsupdeodorant Change image and share on social
But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography. John Updike biographygagletter Change image and share on social
A seventeenth-century house can be recognized by its steep roof, massive central chimney and utter porchlessness. Some of those houses have a second-story overhang, emphasizing their medieval look. John Updike centralcenturychimney Change image and share on social
My last vivid boyhood fright from books came when I was 15; I was visiting my uncle and aunt in Greenwich, and, emboldened by my success with 'The Waste Land,' I opened their copy of 'Ulysses.' The whiff of death off those remorseless, closely written pages overpowered me. So: back to soluble mysteries, and jokes that were not cosmic. John Updike auntbackbook share on social
Some golfers, we are told, enjoy the landscape; but properly, the landscape shrivels and compresses into the grim, surrealistically vivid patch of grass directly under the golfer's eyes as he morosely walks toward where he thinks his ball might be. John Updike ballcompressdirectly share on social
A room containing Philip Roth, I have noticed, begins hilariously to whirl and pulse with a mix of rebelliousness and constriction that I take to be Oedipal. John Updike beginconstrictionhilariously Change image and share on social
The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me. John Updike inkinklingmetal Change image and share on social