I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be… — John Irving Copy Share Image
A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories. — John Irving Copy Share Image
Don’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it. — John Irving Copy Share Image
I wasn't afraid of anything until I had a kid. Then I was terrified because immediately I could imagine a hundred ways… — 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
“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
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
It was one of those ridiculous arrangements that couples make when they are separating, but before they are divorced - when they… — John Irving Copy Share Image
You know, people think you have to be dumb to skip rope for 45 minutes. No, you have to be able to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and… — John Irving Copy Share Image
It's magical thinking to imagine that the reason unspeakable things are being perpetrated by younger and younger people is that they've fallen… — John Irving 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
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
