That a marriage ends is less than ideal but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds. – John Updike
The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion. – John Updike
What art offers is space — a certain breathing room for the spirit. – 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
How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky? Anyone knows they are. How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute? No, you cannot explain. So you walk. – Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, “The Walk,” 25 October 1967