If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
Old age treats freelance writers pretty gently.
Interpretation
Old age offers a kinder perspective on the struggles faced by freelance writers.
In this quote, John Updike suggests that as people grow older, they come to appreciate the dedication and challenges of freelance writing more kindly. This reflects a broader understanding that life experiences and age can bring a sense of compassion and recognition for the efforts of those who undertake the uncertain path of freelance work.
In practice
Use this quote in a speech about the value of experience in creative fields.
If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
Consciously or not, we are all on a quest for answers, trying to learn the lessons of life. We grapple with fear and guilt. We search for meaning, love, and power. We try to understand fear, loss, and time. We seek to discover who we are and how we can become truly happy.
Men become wise just as they become rich, more by what they save than by what they receive.
I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work.
That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.
People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.
Things are going downhill with you!' he said to himself, and laughed about it, and as he was saying it, he happened to glance at the river, and he also saw the river going downhill, always moving on downhill, and singing and being happy through it all.
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