THE ONLY THREE REASONS WRITERS SHOULD RECEIVE MEDALS

John Updike, on accepting the MacDowell medal in 1981:

“One, they do, in becoming writers, dare to go it alone in a world in which most of us have developed secure links to some part of the corporate governmental power structure . . . . Secondly, they do dare to play, to remain childish, to keep alive that spark in us which we all bring to kindergarten but very few of us carry out of twelfth grade: the excitement about creating something out of nothing – on paper, with clay, or with a musical instrument. And thirdly, they do try to tell the truth.”