01c. 1970 ADMars has long exerted a pull on the human imagination. The erratically moving red star in the sky was seen as sinister or violent by the ancients: The Greeks identified it with Ares, the god of war; the Babylonians named it after Nergal, god of the underworld. To the ancient Chinese, it was Ying-huo, the fire planet.John Updike / quote ↗
02c. 1970 ADI know more about what it's like to be elderly and infirm and kind of stupid, the way you get forgetful, but on the other hand I'm a littler, wiser, dare we say? The word 'wisdom' has kind of faded out of our vocabulary, but yeah, I'm a little wiser.John Updike / quote ↗
03c. 1970 ADNow that I am sixty, I see why the idea of elder wisdom has passed from currency.John Updike / quote ↗
04c. 1970 ADThe Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education.John Updike / quote ↗
05c. 1970 ADWriting criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.John Updike / quote ↗
06c. 1970 ADI must say, when I reread myself, it's the poetry I tend to look at. It's the most exciting to write, and it's over the quickest.John Updike / quote ↗
07c. 1970 ADMost of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.John Updike / quote ↗
08c. 1970 ADWriters may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.John Updike / quote ↗
