“don't worry - so what if there is no life after death? There is life after Garp, believe me.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
Half my life is an act of revision; more than half the act is performed with small changes. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Rural life in the winter months was rugged: snow-blurred and alcohol-fueled, violent and fast.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
No one could have fathomed what a life he'd led, for it was chiefly a life lived in his mind. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“For a terrible time of life a teen-ager deceives himself; he believes he can trick the world. He believes he is invulnerable.… — John Irving Copy Share Image
If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Be serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don't mean that you can't also be funny, or have fun, but at the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“There is no Purgatory-that's a catholic invention. There's life on earth, There's heaven-and there's hell” — John Irving Copy Share Image
Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are. You don't pick them; they… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Those who plead for the lives of the unborn should consider the lives of the living. ...the unborn are not as wretched… — John Irving Copy Share Image
You live your life at the time you live it -- you don't have much of an overview when what's happening to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I grew up without a father, who was kept a mystery to me. There was a sense of uprootedness, things being one… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I want to go on being a student," I told him. "I want to be a teacher. I'm just a reader," I… — John Irving Copy Share Image
All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Ted Seabrooke, my wrestling coach, had a kind of Nietzschean effect on me in terms of not just his estimation of my… — John Irving Copy Share Image
If watching television doesn't hasten death, it surely manages to make death very inviting; for television so shamelessly sentimentalizes and romanticizes death… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Life," Garp wrote, "is sadly not structured like a good old-fashioned novel. Instead an end occurs when those who are meant to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LEARNED IT- IT'S A GIFT. IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT. IF YOU'RE… — John Irving Copy Share Image
For most of my life, when I've finished the book I'm writing, there've always been as many as two or three other… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I try to see the whole woman,' Eddie said to Hannah. 'Of course I recognize that she's old, but there are photographs… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Newspapers are a bad habit, the reading equivalent of junk food. What happens to me is that I seize upon an issue… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Just accept as a fact that everyone of any emotional importance to you is related to everyone else of any emotional importance… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“That was when Angel Wells became a fiction writer, whether he knew it or not. That's when he learned how to make… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“I you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
“living in a world where nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently.” I” — John Irving Copy Share Image
Nothing moves at the Hotel New Hampshire! We're screwed down here-for life! — John Irving Copy Share Image
If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. — John Irving Copy Share Image
Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“I must part with you for my whole life," she read, with horror. "I must begin a new existence amongst strange faces… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I don't think I've had a very interesting life, and I feel that is a great liberation. That gives me great freedom… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from… — John Irving Copy Share
… and so he tried to accept the ache in his heart as what Dr. Larch would call the common symptoms of normal life. — John Irving Copy Share
Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean––make sure they know what they mean! — John Irving Copy Share
The desire to never leave your side, the desire to never see you again. The desire to see your face asleep on the pillow… — John Irving Copy Share
I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo. It was… — John Irving Copy Share
“God, I think I just hit a high E-flat - and I really held it!" Esmeralda said, after one of her more prolonged orgasms,… — John Irving Copy Share
“Nostalgia!" Miss Frost cried. "You´re nostalgic!" She repeated. "Just how old are you, William?" She asked. "Seventeen, " I told her. "Seventeen!" Miss Frost… — John Irving Copy Share
“JUST BECAUSE A BUNCH OF ATHEISTS ARE BETTER WRITERS THAN THE GUYS WHO WROTE THE BIBLE DOESN'T NECESSARILY MAKE THEM RIGHT!" [Owen Meany] said… — John Irving Copy Share
It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where… — John Irving Copy Share
“Only the chicken-lover will understand me. He will give me a kindly look, maybe mildly desirous. His eyes will tell me: You might look… — John Irving Copy Share
You're nice,' Cushie told him, squeezing his hand. 'And you're my oldest friend.' But they both must have known that you can know someone… — John Irving Copy Share
“Because of A Prayer for Owen Meany, many of my readers assume I am “religious.” I go to church only occasionally—like a lot of… — John Irving Copy Share
“Did anyone who was in love and was unsatisfied with how he was loved in return ever feel saved?” — John Irving Copy Share
“I TRUST THAT GOD WILL HELP ME, BECAUSE WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO LOOKS VERY HARD.” — John Irving Copy Share
