WIST

We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
Christian Science Monitor (5 Mar 1979)

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
Odd Jobs (1991)

To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
Self-Consciousness: Memoirs, ch. 4 (1989)

Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
The Coup (1978)

We are most alive when we’re in love.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
Interview, in Naim Attalah, Singular Encounters (1990)