John Updike on Writing

John Updike was born on 18 March 1932 and died in 2009.
He was an American writer of novels, short stories, and poetry
He received numerous honours, including two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction, two National Book Awards and three National Book Critics Circle Awards.

 ➀ “There is no doubt that I have lots of words inside me; but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam.”
➁ “The creative writer uses his life as well as being its victim; he can control, in his work, the self-presentation that in actuality is at the mercy of a thousand accidents.”
 ➂ “Writers take words seriously — perhaps the last professional class that does — and they struggle to steer their own through the crosswinds of meddling editors and careless typesetters and obtuse and malevolent reviewers into the lap of the ideal reader.”

 ➀ “Senza alcun dubbio ho un mucchio di parole dentro di me; ma a volte, come il traffico all’imbocco di un tunnel all’ora di punta, si inceppano.”
➁ “Lo scrittore creativo usa la sua vita e ne è anche la vittima; nel suo lavoro riesce a controllare una presentazione di sé che in realtà è in balia di mille circostanze.”
 ➂ “Gli scrittori prendono sul serio le parole – forse sono l’ultima classe professionale che lo fa – e lottano per guidare le proprie in grembo al lettore ideale attraverso raffiche di editori impiccioni, tipografi negligenti, critici ottusi e maligni.”

_{image: Flickr – Cliff – John Hoyer Updike, 1982, oil on canvas by Alex Katz}