“Bill is a fiction writer, but he writes in the first-person voice in a style that is tell-all confessional; in fact, his… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Ruth Cole was a novelist; novelists are not at their best when they go off half-cocked. She believed that she would prepare… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“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
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
I don't think I've had a very interesting life, and I feel that is a great liberation. That gives me great freedom… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“You know, it's not only writers who have this problem, but writers really, really have this problem; for us, a so-called train… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“I realize that a writer's business is setting fire to Piggy Sneed-and trying to save him-again and again; forever.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Here was the world-famous novelist with her penchant for detail; yet, in her observations of a prostitute with a customer, she had… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I'm not typing. I write only by longhand. I've always written first drafts by hand and then once I was into a… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“She asserted that the best fictional detail was a chosen detail, not a remembered one - for fictional truth was not only… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties." (Interview… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“If (a writer) has applied himself to an art for 15 or 20 years and they’ve gotten good at it, and they’re… — 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
I have lots of notebooks around, because one great advantage of writing by hand-in addition to how much it slows you down-is… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I don't begin a novel until I have written, not just the last sentence, but usually, as a result thereof, many of… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I get up early. I like to read a little before anyone but the dog is up. I also like to read… — 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 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
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
I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I'm not proselytizing my method. I don't believe that one writer should tell other writers how to write. — John Irving Copy Share Image
I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
There's a lot of ignorance about how long it takes to write a novel. There's a lot of ignorance about how long… — John Irving Copy Share Image
If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a… — 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 you have constructive accidents en route through a novel only because you have mapped a clear way. If you have… — 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
![“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/quotes/img-quotes/70e/john-irving-337_atheists_just-because-a-bunch-of-atheists-are-bet_31804.jpg)
