If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as a mode of truth-telling, self-expression and homage to the twin miracles of creation and consciousness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative writing serves as a powerful tool for self-expression and revealing truths about humanity.
In this quote, John Updike emphasizes the significance of creative writing, whether as poetry or narrative fiction, in illustrating the intrinsic value of human experience. He suggests that through this form of artistic expression, individuals can convey truths and reflect their consciousness, celebrating the dual wonders of creativity and awareness.
Themes
Creative WritingSelf-ExpressionTruthConsciousnessArt
In practice
Example use cases
Quotes about the importance of writing can inspire students in a creative writing class.
More from John Updike
All quotes →Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
John UpdikeRead
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
John UpdikeRead
But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
John UpdikeRead
The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
John UpdikeRead
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
John UpdikeRead
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If anyone gets in my way when I'm making a picture, I become irrational. I'm never sure what I am going to do, or sometimes even aware of what I do-only that I want that picture.
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We don't make music, it makes us
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When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.
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Remember, writing poetry is like making love: one will never know whether one's own pleasure is shared.
Cesare PaveseRead