but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive. — John Irving Friend Copy Share Image
“JUST THINK OF THIS AS MY LITTLE GIFT TO YOU," says Owen Meany” — John Irving Owen Meany Copy Share Image
I always begin with a character or characters, and then try to think up as much action for them as possible. — John Irving Action Copy Share Image
“...return trips, to this day...are simply invitations to dull trances or leaden slumber,” — John Irving Copy Share Image
“It seemed to Dr. Daruwalla that his story was the opposite of universal; his story was simply strange - the doctor himself… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“DON’T GIVE IT ANOTHER THOUGHT,” he said. “WE’RE PALS, AREN’T WE? WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? I’LL NEVER LEAVE YOU.” — John Irving Friend Copy Share Image
I'm not writing non-fiction. I don't feel anything about me as a kid was unique. Except that I had more interest in… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I'm old-fashioned, a storyteller. I'm not an analyst and I'm not an intellectual. — John Irving Analysts Copy Share Image
“My dear boy, " Miss Frost said sharply. "My dear boy, please don't put a label on me - don't make a… — John Irving Labels Copy Share Image
“a part of adolescence is feeling that there's no one else around who's enough like yourself to understand you.” — John Irving Adolescence Copy Share Image
I believe you have constructive accidents en route through a novel only because you have mapped a clear way. If you have… — John Irving Accidents Copy Share Image
“The kind of people claiming to be in communication with God today . . . they are enough to drive a real… — John Irving Christianity Copy Share Image
He had in abundance youth’s most dangerous qualities: optimism and relentlessness. He would risk everything he had to fly the plane that… — John Irving Abundance Copy Share Image
“God, I think I just hit a high E-flat - and I really held it!" Esmeralda said, after one of her more… — John Irving High notes Copy Share Image
“Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event;… — John Irving Christian 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
“According to my mother, I was a fiction writer before I'd written any ficton, by wich she meant not only that I… — John Irving Fiction writer Copy Share Image
“There is no excuse for cruelty, but--at an orphanage--perhaps we are obliged to withhold love; if you fail to withhold love at… — John Irving Love Copy Share Image
“It galls me that seeking out the seedy, the sordid, the sexual, and the deviant is the expected (if not altogether acceptable)… — John Irving Courage Copy Share Image
“From Hester’s bedroom—even though the door was closed—we could hear her breathing; Hester’s breathing, when she’d been drinking, was something between a… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“When the valley surrounding St. Cloud's was cleared and the second growth (scrub pine and random, unmanaged softwoods) sprang up everywhere, like… — John Irving Environmentalism Copy Share Image
I've always been interested in miracles, or the miraculous of the unexplained. I don't scoff at what makes people believe or want… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Of course I knew then where Hester had hidden Owen Meany; he’d been under the couch cushions—and under her!—all the while we… — 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 Ageless Copy Share Image
All the unimaginative assholes in the world who imagine that Shakespeare couldn't have written Shakespeare because it was impossible from what we… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“But you of all people!” I said to him. “Look at me—I never was a believer, not until this happened. If I… — John Irving Faith Copy Share Image
“...there's a limit to enduring admiration being a substitute for love.” — John Irving Admiration Copy Share Image
They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other. — John Irving Copy Share Image
Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything. — John Irving Copy Share Image
