If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
I find in my own writing that only fiction - and rarely, a poem - fully tests me to the kind of limits of what I know and what I feel.
Interpretation
The quote expresses how fiction and poetry challenge the depths of one's knowledge and emotions.
John Updike reflects on the unique ability of fiction and poetry to push the boundaries of understanding and emotional expression. He suggests that these art forms serve as rigorous tests of personal insight and feeling, allowing writers to explore complex truths about their experiences and perceptions. In doing so, they reveal the profound connection between creativity and introspection.
In practice
In a literary discussion about the importance of creative writing.
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.
I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.
I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections, Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling, Or just after.
Drag is involved with changing identities and not taking identities too seriously at all. That's why drag is such a hard sell to a network - or anyone, really - because it's up against the ego.
As an artist I have always tried to be faithful to my vision of life, and I have frequently been in conflict with those who wanted me to paint not what I saw but what they wished me to see.
Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else.
Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing.
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