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

"The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding."
"Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them."
"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."
"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."