A Quote by John Updike

A lot of the Koran does not speak very eloquently to a Westerner. Much of it is either legalistic or opaquely poetic. — © John Updike
A lot of the Koran does not speak very eloquently to a Westerner. Much of it is either legalistic or opaquely poetic.
Well, yes, I mean, I think that, you know, my sources suggest that there's a lot of support for the notion that there is a lot of Koran abuse and that it was very much a systematic design, not just an aberration.
Well, yes, I mean, I think that, you know, my sources suggest that there’s a lot of support for the notion that there is a lot of Koran abuse and that it was very much a systematic design, not just an aberration.
I want to learn how to speak Urdu. I find it very interesting and soothing to ears. It is very poetic too.
Any Westerner can now buy a Koran for a dollar and burn it, while any Muslim with a platform can transform that act into a fighting offense. As passions rise on both sides of the divide, Western provocateurs and Islamist hotheads have found each other, as confrontations occur with increasing frequency.
It is impossible not to react to the current state of affairs through personal action and artistic production. We have been at war for three years. One desperately feels the need for someone to speak some sort of truth, either poetic or factual.
Not for nothing does the neurotic suffer - but not for anything very much, either.
Does a man speak foolishly?--suffer him gladly, for you are wise. Does he speak erroneously?--stop such a man's mouth with sound words that cannot be gainsaid. Does he speak truly?--rejoice in the truth.
At the time of Caliph Omar's invasion of Egypt, the Arab officer on duty in the destruction of the library of Alexandria used two stamps with which he marked the books. One said: 'Does not agree with the Koran - heretic, must be burned'. The other said: 'Agrees with the Koran - superfluous, must be burned'.
You know, chemo and radiation is a very tough customer. It does so much good, but it also does a lot of damage.
Myths of the heroes speak most eloquently of man's quest to choose life over death.
When we speak about trespassing, we speak about artistic trespassing. You have to be prudent and have common sense and a sense of responsibility when you're trespassing. I think you haven't seen a film on volcanoes like that before. It's not National Geographic. It is wildly imaginative and very poetic and has a sense of awe that you normally do not see in films.
Printed media and other media indicated that Mr. Ellison was going to use the Koran, and that generated scores and hundreds of emails to my office. And so I thought it very important to state my view. And my view is that I don't subscribe to the Koran, and I will now be using the Bible when I take the oath.
Being married to a daughter of India is a natural complement of my being in this country for 30 years. My roots are very much in this country, even though I remain a Westerner.
I will keep a Bible or Koran on me at all times - the Bible I can actually carry on my phone, and any hotel you go to has a Bible, but the Koran is harder. I keep a physical Koran in my guitar case and put it on the table in hotel rooms so after a day's work, I can read a few verses.
Poetic experience is distinct in nature from mystical experience. Because poetry emanates from the free creativity of the spirit,it is from the very start oriented toward expression, and terminates in a word proffered, it wants to speak; whereas mystical because it emanates from the deepest longing of the spirit bent on knowing, tends of itself toward silence and internal fruition. Poetic experience is busy with the created world and the enigmatic and innumerable relations of existents with one another, not with the Principle of Being.
Words impress me. If a man can speak eloquently and beautifully to me, I just melt on the floor.
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