The History of Dermatology

"Was not my sly strength, my insistent specialness, somehow linked to my psoriasis? What was my creativity, my relentless need to produce, but a parody of my skin’s embarrassing overproduction? Was not my thick literary skin, which shrugged off rejection slips and patronizing reviews by the sheaf, a superior version of my poor vulnerable own [skin], and my shamelessness on the page a distraction from my real shame?   - Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author John Updike (1932-2009), on his productivity in relation to his psoriasis