“The hardest thing to accept about the passage of time is that the people who mattered most to us are all wrapped… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The principal event of my childhood was that no adult in my family would tell me who my father was. — John Irving Copy Share Image
When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in… — John Irving German Copy Share Image
How we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes. — 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
This is what self-centered religion does to us: it allows us to use it to further our own ends. — 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 Books 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
“Well, you finally got me," Helen had whispered to him, tearfully, but Garp had sprawled there, on his back on the wrestling… — John Irving Humor Copy Share Image
I always know more about the ending, even the aftermath to the ending, than I know about the beginning. And so there's… — John Irving Aftermath Copy Share Image
“Stewart, Jr. who was called Stewie Two, graduated from Steering before Garp was even of age to enter the school; Jenny treated… — 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
“I walked all the way through the Heldenplatz – the Plaza of Heroes – and stood where thousands of cheering fascists had… — John Irving Israel 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 Comedy Copy Share Image
“Ruth thought of a novel as a great, untidy house, a disorderly mansion; her job was to make the place fit to… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
“The White House, that whole criminal mob, those arrogant goons who see themselves as justified to operate above the law-they disgrace democracy… — John Irving Crime 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 Art Copy Share Image
“MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR. AT LEAST, YOU GET TO READ STUFF THAT'S WRITTEN BY PEOPLE WHO CAN WRITE! YOU… — John Irving English major 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 Bad habit Copy Share Image
“That image of how the children can lift Owen over their heads in Sunday school—how he is light enough so they can… — John Irving Children Copy Share Image
“JUST BECAUSE A BUNCH OF ATHEISTS ARE BETTER WRITERS THAN THE GUYS WHO WROTE THE BIBLE DOESN'T NECESSARILY MAKE THEM RIGHT!" [Owen… — John Irving Atheists Copy Share Image
“Candy felt helpless; no one seemed to understand why she was standing there. Children were colliding with her at hip level, and… — John Irving Children Copy Share Image
I have a process that I seem to always, to some degree, as a writer, adhere to, but I certainly have never… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Once the state starts providing, it feels free to hand out the rules, too!" Larch blurted hastily. ..."In a better world..." she… — John Irving Abortion Copy Share Image
Never confuse faith, or belief—of any kind—with something even remotely intellectual. — John Irving Belief 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
“What do you think I imagine making love to a vagina would be like? Maybe like having sex with a ballroom!” — John Irving Copy Share Image
“You're not like anyone else, Billy - that's what's the matter with you," Donna said.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
My dear boy, please don’t put a label on me—don’t make me a category before you get to know me! — John Irving Boys Copy Share Image
Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when… — John Irving Death Copy Share Image
The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference. — John Irving Character 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
What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too. — John Irving Abortion Copy Share Image
“he smoked so much marijuana that his hair smelled like a cupboard crammed with oregano;” — John Irving Marijuana Copy Share Image
“There are always suicides," Garp wrote, "among people who are unable to say what they mean".” — John Irving Suicide Copy Share Image
In a school community, someone who reads a book for some secretive purpose, other than discussing it, is strange. What was she… — John Irving Book Copy Share Image
(Baseball) is a game with a lot of waiting in it; it is a game with increasingly heightened anticipation of increasingly limited… — John Irving Action Copy Share Image
“Did anyone who was in love and was unsatisfied with how he was loved in return ever feel saved?” — John Irving Love Copy Share Image
“That's actually happened?' Ruth asked. 'Everything's happened,' the prostitute said.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
…there was no more safety to be found in love than there was to be found in a virus. — John Irving Copy Share Image
![“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 crossly. "LOOK AT THOSE WEIRDO TV MIRACLE-WORKERS--THEY'RE TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IN MAGIC! BUT THE REAL MIRACLES AREN'T ANYTHING YOU CAN…” quote by John Irving](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/70e/john-irving-337_atheists_just-because-a-bunch-of-atheists-are-bet_31804.jpg)
