"Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better"
About this Quote
Updike needles the romance out of “creativity” by treating it as branding: a “plus name” slapped onto what most people are already doing. The jab matters because it’s coming from a novelist long associated with polish, craft, and the allegedly rarefied life of letters. He’s not demoting art so much as demoting our excuses. If creativity is a special substance you’re either born with or denied, then you’re off the hook. If it’s just “regular activity” done with care, the burden shifts back onto you: attention, revision, humility.
The subtext is moral as much as aesthetic. “Cares about doing it right, or better” frames creativity as an ethic of incremental improvement rather than a lightning strike. Updike quietly aligns himself with the unglamorous part of making things: showing up, noticing flaws, fixing them. It’s also a defense of seriousness in an age that loves spontaneity myths. The sentence pulls against the cultural story of the tortured genius and toward something closer to professionalism: creativity as a consequence of standards.
Contextually, Updike wrote across decades when American culture increasingly fetishized originality and “innovation” as identity. His line reads like a corrective from inside the machine: the novel isn’t magic, it’s labor; so is parenting, carpentry, teaching, cooking. He’s widening the category of the creative not to be inclusive in a feel-good way, but to be bracing: if care is the threshold, then creativity is available - and demanded - everywhere.
The subtext is moral as much as aesthetic. “Cares about doing it right, or better” frames creativity as an ethic of incremental improvement rather than a lightning strike. Updike quietly aligns himself with the unglamorous part of making things: showing up, noticing flaws, fixing them. It’s also a defense of seriousness in an age that loves spontaneity myths. The sentence pulls against the cultural story of the tortured genius and toward something closer to professionalism: creativity as a consequence of standards.
Contextually, Updike wrote across decades when American culture increasingly fetishized originality and “innovation” as identity. His line reads like a corrective from inside the machine: the novel isn’t magic, it’s labor; so is parenting, carpentry, teaching, cooking. He’s widening the category of the creative not to be inclusive in a feel-good way, but to be bracing: if care is the threshold, then creativity is available - and demanded - everywhere.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work Ethic |
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