“My first thought, as a child, was that the artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy.”

American novelist, poet, and critic

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. He is known for a career that ranged across fiction, poetry, criticism, and children’s books, and for being one of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. Over the course of his career, Updike published more than 20 novels and more than a dozen short-story collections, along with poetry and books of art and literary criticism. His work reflects that wide range, moving between fiction and commentary with equal ease.