“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
When I love a novel I've read, I want to reread it - in part, to see how it was constructed. — 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 Copy Share Image
“Good night you Kings of New England. You Princes of Maine." Who knows what book this quote comes from?” — John Irving Copy Share Image
“The one critisism the author of Slaugherhouse-Five would make of the young writer was what he called a punctuation problem. Mr. Vonnegut… — John Irving Copy Share Image
So, you see, it's a real chore for me to write a book review because it's like a contest. It's like I'm… — 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'm a very old-fashioned novelist. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“A novel is always more complicated than it seems at the beginning. Indeed a novel should be more complicated than it seems… — John Irving 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 Copy Share Image
The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of. — John Irving Copy Share Image
Anybody can do research. The plotting of the novel, writing the ending before you write anything else, which I always do -… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer… — John Irving Copy Share Image
'Great Expectations' was an important novel in my adolescence. It was very much one of those emblematic novels that made me wish… — 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
“It was Owen Meany who taught me that any good book is always in motion—from the general to the specific, from the… — 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
“She was a passionate reader, and she thought that reading was one of the noblest efforts of all; in contrast, she found… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I have no respect for the right-to-life position, though I have every respect for an individual who says, "I could never have… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Grown-ups shouldn’t finish books they’re not enjoying. When you’re no longer a child, and you no longer live at home, you don’t… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Of course, if I write a first-person novel about a woman writer, I am inviting every book reviewer to apply the autobiographical… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it. — 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
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 Image
… 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 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… — John Irving Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 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 know someone… — John Irving Copy Share Image
