was one of my favorite writers. He’s dead.

The man had more than a way with words. He had an uncommon depth of insight into the dry gultches of the disaffected consciousness of a half century. And he was simply a beautiful writer.

Updike will be missed.

My favorite of his books, Toward the End of Time.

The artist brings something into the world that didn’t exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

– John Updike, writer (1932-2009)