If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Criticism serves a different purpose in writing compared to the creative act of fiction or poetry, much like the difference between staying close to safety and venturing into the unknown.
In this quote, John Updike emphasizes the distinction between writing criticism and creating fiction or poetry. He likens criticism to hugging the shore, suggesting that it is a safe, confined activity, while writing fiction is akin to sailing in the open sea, representing adventure, freedom, and the exploration of new ideas. This highlights that while both forms are valuable, they engage writers in different ways, with criticism grounded in analysis and the creative process venturing into uncharted territories of thought and emotion.
Themes
CriticismWritingFictionPoetryArtCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of exploring creative boundaries.
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.
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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.
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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.
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To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
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Similar quotes
Of course I know that the twins are only words on a page, and I'm certainly not the sort of writer who talks to his characters or harbours any illusions about the creative process. But at the same time, I think it's juvenile and arrogant when literary writers compulsively remind their readers that the characters aren't real. People know that already. The challenge is to make an intelligent reader suspend disbelief, to seduce them into the reality of a narrative.
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Life is short and art is long.
Seneca The YoungerRead
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Television and cinema were all very well, but these stories happened to other people. The stories I found in books happened inside my head. I was, in some way, there. It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds.
Neil GaimanRead
Have a strong vision about the story you want to tell and how you want to tell it.
Robert RedfordRead