John Updike

We are most alive when we're in love.

Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

the music was human; the static was natural.

You can never get the smell of smoke out. Like the smell of failure in life.

Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

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

A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience.

We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. … Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it's up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.