“Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring - an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.”
“Humor is my default mode.”
John Updike
“American art in general... takes to surreal exaggerations and metaphors; but its Puritan work ethic has little use for the playful self-indulgence behind Parisian Surrealism.”
John Updike
“What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.”
John Updike
“It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.”
John Updike
“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”
John Updike