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We are drawn to artists who tell us that art is difficult to do and takes a spiritual effort, because we are still puritan enough to respect a strenuous spiritual effort.
John Updike
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Art is perceived as challenging and requires deep spiritual engagement, which resonates with our respect for effort in creation.

In this quote, John Updike reflects on the allure of artists who acknowledge the intrinsic difficulties in creating art. He suggests that society holds a deep-seated respect for the spiritual and strenuous effort that goes into artistic creation, which not only validates the hardships of the artist but also connects with our own values of hard work and dedication.

Themes

ArtSpiritualityEffortCreationRespect

In practice

Example use cases

A discussion on the challenges of creative endeavors in an art class.

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Quote by John Updike | QuoteProject