Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an arra…

John Updike
174 citations
Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us.
Humanity
16

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...hate suits him better than forgiveness. Immersed in hate, he doesn't have to do anything; he can be paralyzed, and the rigidty of hatred makes a kind of shelter for him. ✨ John Updike (2010). Rabb … ▶
The difficulty is, all swing thoughts decay, like radium. What burnt up the course on Wednesday has turned to lead on Sunday. Yet it does not do to have a blank mind: the terrible hugeness of the cou … ▶
The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever. ✨ 1989 Self-Consciousness, I.'A Soft Spring Night in Shillington'.
When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas. ✨ John Updike (2013). Picked-Up Pieces: Essays, p.472, Random House
The measure of artistic merit is the length to which a writer is willing to go in following his own compulsions.

Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us.

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