but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive. — John Irving Friend Copy Share Image
Plot is a map and I begin with it. It is what made me admire the novels of the 19th century; that… — John Irving 19th century Copy Share Image
I've always been slow but I'm even slower now. I'm more into the waiting, or I guess I'm more patient about the… — John Irving Impatient Copy Share Image
The only way you get Americans to notice anything is to tax them or draft them or kill them. — John Irving Americans Copy Share Image
A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy — John Irving Crazy Copy Share Image
Don’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it. — John Irving Imagine Copy Share Image
“She was convinced that women were as often victims of themselves as they were of men.” — John Irving Victims Copy Share Image
As it was, things went from bad to worse, as they often will when amateurs are involved in an activity that they… — John Irving Amateurs Copy Share Image
I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to… — John Irving Best Copy Share Image
I think better of our behaviour as individuals than I do when we see ourselves as members of a group. It's when… — John Irving Art form 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 Autobiographical Copy Share Image
“You are my work of art," Wilbur Larch told Homer Wells. "Everything else has just been a job. I don't know if… — John Irving Art Copy Share Image
“Hang in there, Frank!' Freud called - to the entire lobby. 'Don't let anyone tell you you're queer! You're a prince, Frank!'… — John Irving Freud Copy Share Image
Owen Meany believed that “coincidence” was a stupid, shallow refuge sought by stupid, shallow people who were unable to accept the fact… — John Irving Accepting Copy Share Image
“Moreover, there was what Amy called “the cocksuckers’ contingent of the country”—what Danny knew as the dumber-than-dog-shit element, those bully patriots—and they… — John Irving Patriotism Copy Share Image
“When I first came to Canada, I thought it was going to be easy to be a Canadian; like so many stupid… — John Irving Came Canada Copy Share Image
You can't say you're going to ban something in the name of good taste, because then you have directed someone to play… — John Irving Bad taste Copy Share Image
“But the penultimate paragraph of the novel is naturally the passage I wrote first. “When we held Owen Meany above our heads,… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
“When, if only for a moment, the novelist steps out of the creator's role, what roles are there for the novelist to… — John Irving Time 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 Books Copy Share Image
“I met him in the language lab. In a lull between lab sections, I was editing tapes for freshman German when this… — John Irving Bear Copy Share Image
It seems to me that people who don’t learn as easily as others suffer from a kind of learning disability—there is something… — John Irving Ability Copy Share Image
“It surprised him that she was the one who looked stricken with fear, as if she were a prisoner in the passenger… — John Irving Fear 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
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
