John Updike Quotes

Poetry is respected only in this country [Russia.] There is no place where more people are killed for it.

A lot of my activity in the theatre, and even in writing poems, was a kind of retrospective aggro on the English teacher who wouldn't allow me to read poetry aloud.

Self-censorship is the most devastating thing for an artist.

There is no official censorship in literature, but I feel a certain fear when I see that a kind of self-censorship is developing in Poland. Authors are somehow afraid of expressing what they really think or feel because they fear political consequences.

I'm such a first-person writer.

As long as I'm making something from my voice, from my perspective there will be Asian American content because I am the storyteller.

Most writers censor themselves in awful ways. I do, too.

My music is definitely very personal. The songs are about moments, snapshots of everyday life, and about having one's say, or at least feeling like one has had one's say.

I like to draw from experiences in my past, but that alone is quite hard and complicated, because I don't want to say anything incriminating or too offensive, but I want to give people an insight into my life and how it was.

I will try exercise my freedom of speech by avoiding legalities.

Poetry is what I've done my whole life. And every important thing in my life had found itself into poems.

There are some things I feel the need to pussyfoot around that I would like to... give vent to. But I realise the press isn't the place to do that.

I really do love 'Panama.' But I'd also have to admit that right now, if I were driven to write another novel like that, I wouldn't even try to find a publisher for it. It simply wouldn't be published. I'd be writing it to put in my closet upstairs.

People are afraid to be themselves because people are afraid to be recorded. Everything is being recorded, and everyone is so sensitive. You say something; a section of people will be offended. It's so annoying; you got to be completely censored.

Even if censorship might encourage creative ways to circumvent it, it still slows down progress and our ability to realise our full creative potential. And that is why I vehemently fight against it.

I'm not going to hold my tongue because society wouldn't want me to say something.

Everyone is their own kind of poet - you can't miss it when their words are written down.

Here's my questions to anybody when they talk about comedy. When you are with your friends, who don't judge you, what do you say? And if that's appropriate to say with your friends, why is it not appropriate anywhere else. Like, I hate those people who judge me and are hypocrites.

We shouldn't censor ourselves based on the weak idea of "looking cool." It's such a waste of potential awesomeness.

I really wouldn't censor myself. But because it was on such a slower scale, I would throw things out, and I indulged the personal stuff as little flashes of truth. Little in-jokes for anyone who was paying particular attention.

... Who alive can say 'Thou art no Poet - mayst not tell thy dreams'? Since every man whose soul is not a clod Hath visions, and would speak, if he had loved, And been well nurtured in his mother tongue.

Silence the artist and you have silenced the most articulate voice the people have.

But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?

Me releasing my music, if anything, is an opportunity to show the world my stories and tell the world my stories.

Poetry is not a creed or dogma. It is a special way of speaking and listening.