“Facts are generally overesteemed. For most practical purposes, a thing is what men think it is.”
Act I
Buchanan Dying (1974)
Context: Facts are generally overesteemed. For most practical purposes, a thing is what men think it is. When they judged the earth flat, it was flat. As long as men thought slavery tolerable, tolerable it was. We live down here among shadows, shadows among shadows.
The New Yorker (March 29, 1976)
“Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.”
A Month of Sundays (1975)
Source: A Month Of Sundays
“If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.”
John Updike book Rabbit, Run
Source: Rabbit, Run
“I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.”
Source: Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism
“Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath.”
John Updike book Rabbit, Run
Source: Rabbit, Run
“You do things and do things and nobody really has a clue.”
John Updike book Rabbit, Run
Source: Rabbit, Run
Source: Self-Consciousness : Memoirs (1989), Ch. 6; Gratia Dei sum quod sum translates to ”Thanks be to God that I am what I am”
Accepting Edward MacDowell Medal, New York Times (26 August 1981)
“But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.”
Source: A&P: Lust in the Aisles