Quotation by

John Updike

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

Poetry

Understanding this quote AI Analysis

John Updike is saying that writing criticism stays close to the safe, familiar boundaries of literature, while creating fiction and poetry involves exploring vast, unpredictable creative possibilities. Criticism analyzes and interprets what already exists, whereas writing original work requires taking risks and venturing into unknown territory.

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All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emoti…

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.