“The houses, many of them no longer lived in by the people whose faces he all knew, are like the houses in a town you see from the train, their brick faces blank in posing the riddle, Why does anyone live here? Why was he set down here, why is this town, a dull suburb of a third-rate city, for him the center and index of a universe that contains immense prairies, mountains, deserts, forests, cities, seas? This childish mystery—the mystery of ‘any place,’ prelude to the ultimate, ‘Why am I me?’—ignites panic in his heart.”
Rabbit, Run (1960)
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John Updike 240
American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, an… 1932–2009Related quotes

“Ah me, why did they build my house by the road to the market town?”
4
The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

atheism.about.com http://atheism.about.com/b/a/035044.htm, 2003.

“Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you!”
The Unknown Rebel http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/rebel.html Time profile. Retrieved January 10, 2006.
Misattributed

“It is as difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to recover from ruin.”
Les villes se relèvent aussi difficilement que les maisons de commerce de leur ruine.
Source: Pierrette (1840), Ch. III: Pathology of Retired Mercers.

Letter to her niece Fanny Basset Washington (October 1789), as quoted in Memorials of Washington and of Mary, his Mother, and Martha, his Wife (1887) edited by James Walter, Robert Cary, p. 267
Context: I live a very dull life here and know nothing that passes in the town — I never go to any public place; indeed I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else. There are certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from; and as I cannot do as I like, I am obstinate, and stay at home a great deal.

Source: Final Analysis (1990), pp. 196-197