I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo.… — John Irving Books 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 Already taken Copy Share Image
I think the sport of wrestling, which I became involved with at the age of 14... I competed until I was 34,… — John Irving Age 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 Fiction 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 Book Copy Share Image
I think now that is the nature of hymns-they make us want to repeat them...they are a part of any service, and… — 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 Catholic 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 Book Copy Share Image
“Again, Homer felt the nudge in his ribs, and Mr. Rose said, mildly, ‘You all so uneducated – Homer’s havin’ a little… — John Irving Man To Man 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
“In Ruth's view, they looked 'like a couple' because they seemed to possess some terrible secret between them - they appeared stricken… — John Irving Humor Copy Share Image
“Six-Pack didn't despise George W. Bush to the degree that Ketchum did, but she thought the president was a smirking twerp and… — John Irving America Copy Share Image
“Melony put herself straight to bed without her dinner. Mrs. Grogan, worried about her, went to Melony’s bed and felt her forehead,… — John Irving Secret love Copy Share Image
“As often as I feel certain that God exists, I feel as often at a loss to say what difference it makes—that… — John Irving Believe in god 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 Accidents Copy Share Image
“Doris Wales was a woman with straw-blond hair whose body appeared to have been dipped in corn oil; then she must have… — John Irving Love Bites Copy Share Image
“I read that part over and over again, until I felt I had the pronunciation right. There was quite a good pencil… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The powerful wind swept his hair away from his face; he leaned his chest into the wind, as if he stood on… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“...worst of all were the highly unlikely science-fiction novels, or the equally implausible futuristic tales. Couldn't my mom and Nana Victoria see… — John Irving Copy Share Image
My first attraction to writing novels was the plot, that almost extinct animal. Those novels I read which made me want to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
When I was still in prep school - 14, 15 - I started keeping notebooks, journals. I started writing, almost like landscape… — John Irving Diaries Copy Share Image
It was one of those ridiculous arrangements that couples make when they are separating, but before they are divorced - when they… — John Irving Children 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 Architecture Copy Share Image
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR, YOU DON’T NEED ANY SPECIAL TALENT, YOU JUST HAVE TO PAY… — John Irving English major Copy Share Image
“What the hell is the matter with Eddie? Ruth was thinking. If he doesn't stop staring at me, I'm going to drive… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I'm not a movie person. They're collaborations of the worst kind. You must compromise yourself to many interests that are venal and… — John Irving Best interests at heart Copy Share Image
People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly… — John Irving Copy Share Image
You're nice,' Cushie told him, squeezing his hand. 'And you're my oldest friend.' But they both must have known that you can… — John Irving Friendship 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 Books Copy Share Image
“Sigmund Freud was a novelist with a scientific background. He just didn’t know he was a novelist. All those damn psychiatrists after… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until… — 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 Courage 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
“It's natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The concept of writing a novel and not knowing where it's going - I don't know how to do that. Novels are… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
“Owen Meany had believed that his death was necessary if others were to be saved from a stupidity and hatred that was… — John Irving Death Copy Share Image
They all settled into being the kind of friends when they heard from each other… or when they occasionally got together. And… — John Irving Friends Copy Share Image
“We aren't eccentric, we're not bizarre. To each other, we're as normal and nice as the smell of bread, we were just… — John Irving Family 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 Cancer Copy Share Image
“In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is… — John Irving Humor Copy Share Image
