If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
Until the 20th century it was generally assumed that a writer had said what he had to say in his works.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers were traditionally expected to express their thoughts fully in their published works.
John Updike's quote reflects the historical expectation that authors would convey all their ideas and understandings within their literary works. He suggests that before the 20th century, it was taken for granted that a writer's messages, insights, and philosophies would be contained within the pages of their books, without the need for supplementary commentary or explanation.
Themes
WritingLiteratureExpressionAuthorCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about literary analysis or the role of the author, this quote can illustrate how perceptions of writing have evolved.
More from John Updike
All quotes βDost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
John UpdikeRead
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
John UpdikeRead
But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
John UpdikeRead
The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
John UpdikeRead
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
John UpdikeRead
Similar quotes
I wish more Italian literature were translated and read in English. I've discovered so many extraordinary and diverse writers: Lalla Romano, Carlo Cassola. Beppe Fenoglio, Giorgio Manganelli, just to name a few.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.
Carolyn SeeRead
We all fear loneliness, madness, dying. Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Leopardi and Hart Crane will not cure those fears. And yet these poets bring us fire and light.
Harold BloomRead
The power of literature does not lie in resonance with the particular but the way that the particular speaks to a broader, more universal truth.
Clint SmithRead
I get a lot of moral guidance from reading novels, so I guess I expect my novels to offer some moral guidance, but they're not blueprints for action, ever.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?
Gore VidalRead