"The United States, democratic and various though..." - Quote by John Updike
The United States, democratic and various though it is, is not an easy country for a fiction-writer to enter: the slot between the fantastic and the drab seems too narrow.
More by John Updike
“There was clearly great charm and worth in a sport so quaintly perverse in its basic instructions. Hit down to make the ball rise. Swing easy to make it go far. Finish high to make it go straight.”
“I would especially like to re-court the Muse of poetry, who ran off with the mailman four years ago, and drops me only a scribbled postcard from time to time.”
“Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.”
More on Writing
“You've got to love libraries. You've got to love books. You've got to love poetry. You've got to love everything about literature. Then, you can pick the one thing you love most and write about it.”
“The art of writing has for backbone some fierce attachment to an idea.”
“I would rather write poems than prose, any day, any place. Yet each has its own force.”
More on United States
“The United States is a land of free speech. Nowhere is speech freer - not even here where we sedulously cultivate it even in its most repulsive form.”
“Major international interventions are doomed unless the US is directly or indirectly involved. But if American politicians, officials and servicemen are to be put at risk of arrest and prosecution, the United States will be most reluctant to act in order to curb aggression or prevent genocide. So the effect of the court may well be to diminish, not increase, the numbers of (in the words of the UN Secretary General) 'innocents of distant wars and conflicts'.”
“The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.”