Updike met with English and Honors students as well as reporters prior to delivering his Presidential Lecture on campus. He told students that he frequently uses his memories for stories and enhances them. To do that, Updike said writers should not be eager to write everything into personal journals. It's good to put a little distance between you and your memories. Rather he encouraged the students to have faith in themselves.
All writing is an act of faith.
Writing is self-therapy. I began as a short story writer and it makes me happy to write what is a good short story. But the novels call out something more in me. There is a kind of bliss in getting immersed in a novel. There is a year you are not getting any feedback from editors.