It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I have always believed that, in a story, if something traumatic or calamitous enough happens to a kid at a formative age,… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Plot is a map and I begin with it. It is what made me admire the novels of the 19th century; that… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Don’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it. — John Irving Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties. — 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
I'm a worst-case scenario person. I'm only interested in a story because I kind of go, like a magnet, to the worst… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true. — John Irving Copy Share Image
And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I'm not at all contemporary, not even modern, and the fact that I would be so quaintly attracted to that wrestling rule… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Know the story before you fall in love with your first sentence. If you don’t know the story before you begin the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn't… — John Irving Copy Share Image
When I finally write the first sentence, I want to know everything that happens, so that I am not inventing the story… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Sometimes that's a year, sometimes it's 18 months, where all I'm doing is taking notes. I'm reconstructing the story from the back… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Homer and Candy passed by the empty and brightly lit dispensary; they peeked into Nurse Angela's empty office. Homer knew better than… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The book works better if I know everything I can about the ending. Not just what happens, but how it happens and… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I have stood aside to see the phantoms of those days go by me. They are gone, and I resume the journey… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules. — John Irving Copy Share Image
And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I thought some of the stories were neat; I liked some of the liturgy and some of the songs. If you're a… — 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
