A writer's self-consciousness, for which he is much scorned, is really a mode of interestedness, that inevitably turns outward.
John UpdikeFor male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what we must do - they are glowing signifiers of our own necessities.
John UpdikeLet us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the Faded credulity of earlier ages: Let us walk through the door.
John UpdikeAnd there was, in those Ipswich years, for me at least, a raw educational component; though I used to score well in academic tests, I seemed to know very little of how the world worked and was truly grateful for instruction, whether it was how to stroke a backhand, mix a martini, use a wallpaper steamer, or do the Twist. My wife, too, seemed willing to learn. Old as we must have looked to our children, we were still taking lessons, in how to be grown-up.
John Updike