Fiction is very greedy. It will take all you know and then some. The first novel I tried to write, I was struck by this - the appetite of the blank page for ever more information, ever more data. An empty book is a greedy thing. You are right: You wind up using everything you know, and often more than once.
John UpdikeGovernment is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.
John UpdikeWe were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything
John UpdikeTruth should not be forced; it should simply manifest itself, like a woman who has in her privacy reflected and coolly decided to bestow herself upon a certain man.
John Updike