“I'm just a woman with a penis!" she would say, her voice rising.” — John Irving Penis Copy Share Image
but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive. — John Irving Friendship Copy Share Image
“JUST THINK OF THIS AS MY LITTLE GIFT TO YOU," says Owen Meany” — John Irving Owen Meany Copy Share Image
She sat keenly white and still among them, a witness to everything--maybe determining nothing, possibly judging it all. — John Irving Heart Copy Share Image
“...return trips, to this day...are simply invitations to dull trances or leaden slumber,” — John Irving Copy Share Image
I believe that, in any novel of mine, the principal objective is the construction of the whole. — John Irving Any Copy Share Image
“It seemed to Dr. Daruwalla that his story was the opposite of universal; his story was simply strange - the doctor himself… — John Irving Universal Story Copy Share Image
I'm not writing non-fiction. I don't feel anything about me as a kid was unique. Except that I had more interest in… — John Irving About Copy Share Image
“DON’T GIVE IT ANOTHER THOUGHT,” he said. “WE’RE PALS, AREN’T WE? WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? I’LL NEVER LEAVE YOU.” — John Irving Friend 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'm not proselytizing my method. I don't believe that one writer should tell other writers how to write. — John Irving Believe 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 Advantage Copy Share Image
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest… — John Irving Believe Copy Share Image
“When (The World According To) Garp was published, people who’d lost children wrote to me. ‘’I lost one, too,’’ they told me.… — John Irving Children 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… — John Irving High notes 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
“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
Homer and Candy passed by the empty and brightly lit dispensary; they peeked into Nurse Angela's empty office. Homer knew better than… — John Irving Angela Copy Share Image
“Homer Wells was in Wally’s room, reading David Copperfield and thinking about Heaven – ‘…that sky above me, where, in the mystery… — John Irving Heaven Copy Share Image
“Of course I knew then where Hester had hidden Owen Meany; he’d been under the couch cushions—and under her!—all the while we… — John Irving Hidden 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
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 Deny Copy Share Image
You bet I write disaster fiction. We have compiled a disastrous record on this planet, a record of stupidity and absurdity and… — John Irving Absurdity Copy Share Image
“The Winkles were in the business of manufacturing sensations for people who were so removed from any sensations of their own making… — John Irving Business Copy Share Image
“It galls me that seeking out the seedy, the sordid, the sexual, and the deviant is the expected (if not altogether acceptable)… — John Irving Courage Copy Share Image
Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything. — John Irving Afraid Copy Share Image
“I'll bet every fucking one of your angels is going to be terrifying!” — John Irving Angel Copy Share Image
“...there's a limit to enduring admiration being a substitute for love.” — John Irving Admiration Copy Share Image
They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other. — John Irving Awkward Copy Share Image
