Singing the hitherto unsung- John Updike

From an interview John Updike conducted with himself, collected in Books of the Century:

"...as long as there is one unlucky person in the world, life is grim. (Writing) makes it less so. I cannot do justice to the bliss that attends getting even a single string of dialogue or the name of a weed right. Naming our weeds, in fact, seems to be exactly where it's at. I've been going out into my acre here (gestures toward a scruffy meadow visible from his windows) and trying to identify the wildflowers along the fringes with the aid of a book, and it's remarkably difficult to match reality and diagram. Reality keeps a pace or two ahead, scribble through we will. If you were to ask me what the aim of my fiction is . . . it's bringing the corners forward. Or throwing light into them, if you'd rather. Singing the hitherto unsung."