The literary scene is a kind of Medusa’s raft, small and sinking, and one’s instinct when a newcomer tries to clamber aboard is to step on his fingers.
John UpdikeWriters may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
John UpdikeAn affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is so private it does not seek applause.
John UpdikeSeemed to me important in writing about people to be able to describe the sexual transactions between them. It's - for many people it's the height of, what they see, of ecstasy and poetry is in their sexual encounters. And furthermore, personality - human personality does not end in the bedroom, but persists.
John Updike