John Updike - Rabbit at Rest (1990)

76 Sourced Quotes

View all John Updike Quotes
"Driving is boring," Rabbit pontificates, "but it's what we do. Most of American life is driving somewhere and then driving back wondering why the hell you went."

John Updike
[Harry having drawn at golf] The shape of his collapse clings to him. Who says the universe isn't soaked in disgrace?

John Updike
Women are actresses, tuning their part to each little audience.

John Updike
[Re Florida] Just not being senile is considered great down here.

John Updike
[re the human heart] That little electric twitch: without it we're so much rotting meat.

John Updike
A woman you've endured such a gnawing of desire for, you can't help bearing a little grudge against, when the ache is gone.

John Updike
Charlie interrupts impatiently, "Pain is where it's at for punks. Mutilation, self-hatred, slam dancing. For these kids today, ugly is beautiful. That's their way of saying what a lousy world we're giving them. No more rain forests. Toxic waste. You know the drill."

John Updike
[At news that Nelson got himself a counsellor] Harry feels a jealous, resentful pang. His boy is being taken over. His fatherhood hasn't been good enough. They're calling in the professionals.

John Updike
He supposes they pretty much have the picture. Most people do, in life. People know more than they let on.

John Updike
"Things change," says Mr Shimada. "Is world's sad secret."

John Updike
He could have gone over that night and faced the music but how much music is a man supposed to face?

John Updike
He didn't have a worry in the world back then. He was in paradise and didn't know it.

John Updike
You can't say anything honest to women, they have minds like the FBI.

John Updike
Of a woman on TV on 'Wheel of Fortune':
She makes you proud to be a two-legged mammal.

John Updike
You shouldn't sit in judgment of your parents. We did the best we could while being people too.

John Updike
God's country. He could have made it smaller and still made the same point.

John Updike