So, I don't work in terms of real time. I don't work in a timely fashion. — John Irving Fashion 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
When you legislate personal belief, you're in violation of freedom of religion. — John Irving Belief 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
“What worse awareness is there than to know there would have been a better outcome if you'd never done anything at all?” — John Irving Awareness Copy Share Image
“My dear boy, " Miss Frost said sharply. "My dear boy, please don't put a label on me - don't make a… — John Irving Labels Copy Share Image
“a part of adolescence is feeling that there's no one else around who's enough like yourself to understand you.” — John Irving Adolescence Copy Share Image
YOU LET ME DROWN!” Owen said. “YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING! YOU JUST WATCHED ME DROWN! I’M ALREADY DEAD!” he told us. “REMEMBER… — John Irving Drown Copy Share Image
I'm old-fashioned, a storyteller. I'm not an analyst and I'm not an intellectual. — John Irving Analysts 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 Book Copy Share Image
…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time. — John Irving Compare 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
“...one of the more sophisticated and accepting things about Europe, when it came to difficult decisions regarding sexual identity, was that the… — John Irving Accepting things Copy Share Image
“Isn't it perfectly possible that Nils and his wife are too depressed to have kids? The prospect of having kids depresses the… — John Irving Having kids Copy Share Image
“The prostitute became uncomfortable -- as if 'talk' were in a category of aberrant behavior, short of which she drew the line.… — John Irving Habits Copy Share Image
“in the hospital, Jenny Fields felt she was making up for lost time; she was discovering that people weren't much more mysterious,… — John Irving Heart 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 Art Copy Share Image
“will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession… — John Irving Death Copy Share Image
“When he and Wally stopped laughing, Homer said, ‘I’ve never seen the ocean, you know.’ ‘Candy, did you hear that?’ Wally asked,… — John Irving Humor Copy Share Image
I've always been interested in miracles, or the miraculous of the unexplained. I don't scoff at what makes people believe or want… — John Irving Appreciate Copy Share Image
“From Hester’s bedroom—even though the door was closed—we could hear her breathing; Hester’s breathing, when she’d been drinking, was something between a… — John Irving Drunks 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
Gender mattered a whole lot less to Shakespeare than it seems to matter to us. — John Irving Gender Copy Share Image
