Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to… — John Irving Abortion Copy Share Image
I was brought up in a community, in a family that valued such things as good manners, and I still do. — John Irving Community 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
But who can distinguish between falling in love and imagining falling in love? Even genuinely falling in love is an act of… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“...not simple intolerance but the tolerance of intolerance, which allows the intolerance to persist.” — John Irving Tolerance Copy Share Image
I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be… — John Irving Copy Share Image
You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else. — John Irving Beginning Copy Share Image
The former stewardess glared at her ex-pilot husband as if he had been speaking, and thinking, in the absence of sufficient oxygen. — John Irving Absence Copy Share Image
Crazy people made him crazy. It was as if he personally resented them giving into madness - in part, because he so… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Any contractor who would construct a flat-roofed, two-storey building in Northern New Hampshire was enough of a moron to not know how… — John Irving Copy Share Image
And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the… — John Irving Already taken 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.… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
“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 Fiction Copy Share Image
I think the sport of wrestling, which I became involved with at the age of 14... I competed until I was 34,… — John Irving Age Copy Share Image
For most of my life, when I've finished the book I'm writing, there've always been as many as two or three other… — John Irving Book Copy Share Image
I don't begin a novel or a screenplay until I know the ending. And I don't mean only that I have to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I think that was when the headmaster realized he had lost; he realized then that he was finished. Because, what could he… — John Irving Copy Share Image
What do Americans know about morality? They don't want their presidents to have penises but they don't mind if their presidents covertly… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“David Copperfield had a fever when he’d gone to bed, and Larch went to check on the boy. Dr. Larch was relieved… — John Irving Hot dogs Copy Share Image
“The night she died, Dan found her propped up in her hospital bed; she appeared to have fallen asleep with the TV… — John Irving Television Copy Share Image
“Dan would entertain Owen and me by describing Mr. Tubulari’s pentathlon, his “winterthon.” “The first event,” Dan Needham said, “is something wholesome,… — John Irving Frozen lake Copy Share Image
“What I saw in Washington that October were a lot of Americans who were genuinely dismayed by what their country was doing… — John Irving Armed forces Copy Share Image
There was no manifestation of contemporary culture that did not indicate to my grandmother how steadfast was the nation's decline, how merciless… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“THAT'S WHAT POWERFUL MEN DO TO THIS COUNTRY - IT'S A BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, BREATHLESS COUNTRY, AND POWERFUL MEN USE IT TO TREAT… — John Irving Power 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
“Rural life in the winter months was rugged: snow-blurred and alcohol-fueled, violent and fast.” — John Irving Flower Copy Share Image
Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel. — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
“THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET AMERICANS TO NOTICE ANYTHING IS TO TAX THEM OR DRAFT THEM OR KILL THEM,” Owen said.” — John Irving Americans Copy Share Image
Almost everyone is dying to leave home, eventually; and almost everyone needs to. — John Irving Copy Share Image
I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Mr. Wiggin injected a kind of horror-movie element into the Christmas miracle; to the rector, every Bible story was-if properly understood-threatening.” — John Irving Miracle 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 Business Copy Share Image
The gardener had a dread of small women; he'd always imagined them to have an anger disproportionate to their size. — John Irving Copy Share Image
We permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it - and reward it in all manner of ways. — 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 Book Copy Share Image
Adolescence-is it the first time in life we discover that we have something terrible to hide from those who love us? — John Irving Adolescence Copy Share Image
“…there was no better company for an especially personal revelation than the company of virtual strangers.” — John Irving Business 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 Book Copy Share Image
If you asked me one day, I might say, "Well, sometimes I feel a little bit religious." If you asked me another… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“But Americans are not great historians, and so, for years—educated by my neighbor—I thought that sagamore was an Indian word for lake.” — John Irving History Copy Share Image
