Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be profession... - John Updike

"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."

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More quotes by John Updike

"Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life."
"American art in general... takes to surreal exaggerations and metaphors; but its Puritan work ethic has little use for the playful self-indulgence behind Parisian Surrealism."
"The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding."
"What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit."
"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."