If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
My life is, in a sense, trash. My life is only that of which the residue is my writing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a deep personal sentiment about the value of writing in one's life, suggesting that everything else feels insignificant compared to the act of creating.
John Updike expresses a profound sense of dissatisfaction with his life, describing it as 'trash,' yet he finds meaning and worth in his writing. This statement illustrates how the creative process serves as a vital aspect of his identity, transforming the mundane aspects of existence into something valuable through the act of writing.
Themes
WritingLifeValueIdentityCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, when discussing the purpose of creativity.
More from John Updike
All quotes βDost 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
Similar quotes
People try to pigeonhole comics by saying they're just for kids. So is The Odyssey. So is the Labors of Hercules, the story of Fa Mulan. The advantage of those stories over the contemporary ones is that they've had 2,000 years of editing. All the crap has been weeded out over time.
Chris ClaremontRead
There's something peculiar about writing fiction. It requires an interesting balance between seeing the world as a child and having the wisdom of a middle-aged person. The further you get from childhood and the experience of the teenage years, the greater the danger of losing that wellspring.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er, Like coarsest clothes against the cold
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.
George Bernard ShawRead
I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist.
Jose SaramagoRead
To create anything β whether a short story or a magazine profile or a film or a sitcom β is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. These essays are about that magic β which is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic. I went up there. I wrote. I tried to see.
Tom BissellRead