John Updike: Trending quotes

“[Nelson, to Annabelle] "The misery of the world," he says, reaching into himself to overcome her resistance. "That's what I kept thinking during my group this morning – the pity of everything, all of us, these confused souls trying so pathetically hard to break out of the fog – to see through our compulsions, our needs as they chew us up…"”

Too Far To Go, foreword (1979)

“Writers take words seriously — perhaps the last professional class that does — and they struggle to steer their own through the crosswinds of meddling editors and careless typesetters and obtuse and malevolent reviewers into the lap of the ideal reader.”

Rabbit Remembered (2000)

“…a sense of defeat the years have brought back to him, after what seemed for a while to be triumphs.”

Writers on Themselves (1986)

“Late in the game as it is, you keep trying.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“…This is a hideous thing. None of us will ever be the same.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“You don't know what you don't know.”

"We never are," he dares to say.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“[Nelson, re. Annabelle] …"she wants what everybody wants. She wants love."”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“[Nelson] "…One nice thing about Florida, it makes Pennsylvania look unspoiled."”

Rabbit Remembered (2000)

“[Harry having drawn at golf] The shape of his collapse clings to him. Who says the universe isn't soaked in disgrace?”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“He learned this much selling cars: offer the customer something he doesn't want, to make what he half-wants look better.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“The papers exaggerate. They exaggerate everything, just to sell papers. The government exaggerates, to keep our minds off what morons they are.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“[Thelma] "…We're too old to keep being foolish."”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“The past is the past," Harry goes on, "you got to live in the present. … It's the only way to think. When you're my age, you'll see it. At my age if you carried all the misery you've seen on your back you'd never get up in the morning.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“[Janice] Looking back from this distance, she can't think any more that Harry was all to blame for their early troubles, he had just been trying life on too: life and sex and making babies and finding out who you are.”

Rabbit is Rich (1981)

“America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.”

Rabbit Remembered (2000)

“… Cocaine. The stuff is everywhere.”

“How to Love America and Leave it at the Same Time,” Problems and Other Stories (1979)

“[coming away from the doctor's after a check-up] Get interested is the advice, but in truth you are interested in less and less. It's Nature's way.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

“[Ronnie to Nelson] "For a guy who snorted an entire car agency up his nose, you're one to talk about con games."”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)