All John Irving Quotes
- We invent what we love and what we fear. Fear
- I feel more a part of the wrestling community than I feel I belong to the community of arts and letters. Why? Because wrestling requires… Among
- A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories. Fiction
- It's my experience that very few writers, young or old, are really seeking advice when they give out their work to be read. They want… Advice
- A novel is a piece of architecture. It's not random wallowings or confessional diaries. It's a building-it has to have walls and floors and the… Architecture
- My life as a writer consists of 1/8 talent and 7/8 discipline. Consists
- Be serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don't mean that you can't also be funny, or have fun, but at the end of the… Day
- Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean––make sure they know what they mean! Call
- I don’t have to say to you or anyone in our WRESTLING community that we are a small world unto ourselves and there is often… Anyone
- But who can distinguish between falling in love and imagining falling in love? Even genuinely falling in love is an act of the imagination. Act
- Nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something. Everything Seems
- Rituals are comforting; rituals combat loneliness. Combat
- Ever since the Christmas of 1953, I have felt that the yuletide is a special hell for those families who have suffered any loss or… Admit
- The object of war is to survive it. Funny
- Plot is a map and I begin with it. It is what made me admire the novels of the 19th century; that the stories are… Admire
- When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language All
- A personal injustice is stronger motivation than any instinct for philanthropy. Any
- Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no… Abortion
- What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too. Abortion
- A sentence boiled in her, but she could not yet see it clearly. Boiled
- Homer and Candy passed by the empty and brightly lit dispensary; they peeked into Nurse Angela's empty office. Homer knew better than to peek into… Angela
- The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference. Character
- It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Before you can write anything, you have to notice something. Inspirational
- You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't… Basically Feel
- I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting… Biographies