Q&A With John Updike (page 2 of 2)

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"I'm a schoolteacher's son who wanted desperately to do something creative. I'm proud I've been able to function as a writer for half a century."

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Q: In both Witches and Widows, women have magical powers and men are helpless to resist them. One witch bluntly says, "The men we had children by...that was all they were good for." That does sound...harsh.

A: I'm trying to write from the witches' point of view, so maybe I exaggerate. But women are the race. They bear babies and are chiefly responsible for them. Men are just appendages, really-necessary accidents, but accidents nonetheless. And they're letting go of the patriarchal responsibility they have traditionally enjoyed.

Q: Do you find any compensation in what we euphemistically call the aging process?

A: Age has been kind to me so far. I've been able to keep working and get published. I can almost relax and look at the daisies. And age brings new pleasures. Travel becomes a phenomenon--seeing the world before you leave it.

Q: Your greatest achievements, in your view, would be...

A: That I'm a schoolteacher's son who wanted desperately to do something creative. I'm proud I've been able to function as a writer for half a century. I wanted to write about ordinary Americans and make them interesting. And [I'm proud of] my association with the New Yorker, which I aspired to since age 11.

Q: Ever suffer from writer's block?

A: Every day there's a struggle. I think, Is this worth doing? Am I doing it well? Then there's the gratuitousness of writing fiction--of writing about people who don't exist. But there are many privileges in a freelance, self-employed life. Writing every day is a small price.

Q: Give us a tour of the three desks you have at home.

A: We moved into an old summer-house built on a patrician scale. I took the maids' quarters, above the kitchen-four small rooms plus a bath. In the room with a wooden desk and a typewriter, I write mail. In the room with a steel desk and a view of the sea, I read proofs and write by hand. A third room has a white desk and a computer for final drafts and longer letters. And the fourth, where I read, has an easy chair.

Q: So what keeps you writing?

A: The hope of doing something I've never done before, coming up with something surprising for faithful readers. You want to justify the resources you're taking up, and writing is the only way I know to do that. It's wonderful to find one's own niche.

"This town could use a makeover," said Sukie.

"It gets it, bit by bit," said Tommy. "New folks move in, with their own ideas. A sports bar with three screens plays different sports events every hour of the day and night. The young people all take to it. And there's a health center now. Exercise machines and so on."

"Yes, I saw all these people on treadmills. With headphones on, like a row of zombies. It was frightening."

--From The Widows of Eastwick

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