Share & Save
Meaning
The speaker is saying that New Englanders are impossible to satisfy and hard to warm to. The line paints them as emotionally rigid and their land as harsh and stony.
When It Was Said
1974
Who It Was Said To
Not documented yet.
Historical Context
Cited on Wikiquote as appearing in Act II.
Source
Act II
Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
Listed with a cited source on Wikiquote; certainty is marked PROBABLE.
Did You Know?
Cited on Wikiquote as appearing in Act II.
About John Updike
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.
More from John Updike (241 quotes) →Other sayings from John Updike
- “A seventeenth-century house can be recognized by its steep roof, massive central chimney and utter porchlessn…”John Updike
- “But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish lea…”John Updike
- “[I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me towa…”John Updike
- “Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into…”John Updike
More Reflections quotes
READ THE SOURCE
Books by John Updike
Rabbit, Run
2018
The Witches of Eastwick
2008
Couples
2001
The Centaur
1963
Marry Me
1996