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. – John Updike
It rots a writers brain, it cretinises you. You say the same thing again and again, and when you do that happily youre well on the way to being a cretin. Or a politician. – John Updike
The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion. – John Updike
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being somebody, to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. One can either see or be seen. – John Updike
There will be trying times during Obamas presidency, and liberty will need staunch defenders. Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty? That would be a service to our country. – Bill Kristol