The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of. — 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
“But comedy is ingrained. A writer doesn't choose to be comic. You can choose a plot, or not to have one. You… — 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 am compulsive about writing, I need to do it the way I need sleep and exercise and food and sex; I… — John Irving Copy Share Image
When writing a novel, I'm not smart enough to know how to foreshadow something if I don't know what it is. — John Irving Copy Share Image
This is a writer’s lesson: To learn that the sounds that we imagine can be the clearest, loudest sounds of all. — John Irving Copy Share Image
There's no reason you shouldn't, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Ruth Cole was a novelist; novelists are not at their best when they go off half-cocked. She believed that she would prepare… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I feel more a part of the wrestling community than I feel I belong to the community of arts and letters. Why?… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“If (a writer) has applied himself to an art for 15 or 20 years and they’ve gotten good at it, and they’re… — 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." (Interview… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I'm not typing. I write only by longhand. I've always written first drafts by hand and then once I was into a… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I have lots of notebooks around, because one great advantage of writing by hand-in addition to how much it slows you down-is… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“What would Miss Frost have thought of me? I wondered; I didn't mean my writing . What would she have thought of… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The history of a city was like the history of a family—there is closeness and even affection, but death eventually separates everyone… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Before I began The Cider House Rules, I thought I wanted to write about a father-son relationship that was closer, more conflicted,… — 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
Along the (writing) way accidents happen, detours get taken... But these are not "divine" accidents; I don't believe in those. I believe… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it's not work for me. — John Irving Copy Share Image
The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“You know, it's not only writers who have this problem, but writers really, really have this problem; for us, a so-called train… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“I realize that a writer's business is setting fire to Piggy Sneed-and trying to save him-again and again; forever.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
“There’s nothing I need or want to know from the writers I admire that isn’t in their books. It’s better to read… — 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
I sometimes think that what I do as a writer is make a kind of colouring book, where all the lines are… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Bevore you can write anything, you have to notice something.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
Maybe television causes cancer, Garp thinks; but his real irritation is a writer's irritation: he knows that wherever the TV glows, there… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
A novel is a piece of architecture. It's not random wallowings or confessional diaries. It's a building-it has to have walls and… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I find screenplays easy to write, my novels being very visual. You see what people look like. The physical action is described. — 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
It's my experience that very few writers, young or old, are really seeking advice when they give out their work to be… — John Irving Copy Share Image
And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any.… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Bill is a fiction writer, but he writes in the first-person voice in a style that is tell-all confessional; in fact, his… — John Irving Copy Share Image
'The Fourth Hand' was a novel that came from twenty years of screenwriting concurrently with whatever novel I'm writing. — John Irving Copy Share Image
I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“If you're a writer, the problem is that, when you try to call a halt to thinking about your novel-in-progress, your imagination… — John Irving Copy Share Image
If you're still wondering about details - how am I going to get these two to meet, or whatever - when you're… — 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
