Why John Updike should be every writer's role model

Updike's example seemed the model of a real writer's life, in that this was an existence spent not in talking about writing, promising to write, boasting of having written or telling other people how they should write, but simply in the act of writing, every day, for decades. On top of that, he was a generous, intelligent reader who produced criticism that emphasised the intimate joys of reading, free of the usual dogma and cant. He had an almost sacred, illuminated sense of our little community of writers and readers and his death is a great loss.

This is Zadie Smith on John Updike in the Guardian. Do read the piece, there are some wonderful tributes from many writers who admired him.  I read Couples, and tried to read one of the Rabbit books, but I did not like them all that much. Then again, I was in my very early twenties, and I have not tried to read Updike since.  As I think about what it means to be a writer, I have developed profound admiration for his work ethic, and his sheer commitment to his writing and reading. Zadie Smith's statement sums it all up for me.  In a world where so much fluff is written and said about writing, John Updike simply got on with it.  He is the kind of writer I want to be.