John Updike — American Novelist born on March 18, 1932, died on January 27, 2009

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic... (wikipedia)

We are most alive when we're in love.
Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring - an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.
Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.
As movers and the moved both know, books are heavy freight, the weight of refrigerators and sofas broken up into cardboard boxes. They make us think twice about changing addresses.
To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client.