A part of adolescence is feelimg that there's no one else around who's enough like youself to understand you. — John Irving Adolescence Copy Share Image
The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it's not work for me. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“He felt fortunate to be with Helen; she had her own ambitions and he could not manipulate here.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family… — John Irving Bread Copy Share Image
What a phrase that is: 'that explains everything!' I know better than to think anything 'explains everything' today. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“No matter what my fucking last words were, please say they were these: 'I have always known that the pursuit of excellence… — John Irving Death Copy Share Image
“Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is… — John Irving God Copy Share Image
Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents' own rule. — John Irving Child Copy Share Image
If you're still wondering about details - how am I going to get these two to meet, or whatever - when you're… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I suppose I try to look for those things where the world turns on you. It's every automobile accident, every accident at… — John Irving Accident Copy Share Image
In increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“It was Owen Meany who taught me that any good book is always in motion—from the general to the specific, from the… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“If you're a writer, the problem is that, when you try to call a halt to thinking about your novel-in-progress, your imagination… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
“You don't sound very well Owen." I pointed out to him. "IF JESUS HAD TO BE BORN ON A DAY LIKE THIS.… — John Irving Christianity Copy Share Image
“You should wait, William," Miss Frost said. "The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed,… — John Irving Future relationship Copy Share Image
“Amy Martin (ladysky) and Daniel Baciagalupo had a month to spend on Charlotte Turner's island in Georgian Bay; it was their wilderness… — John Irving Copy Share Image
In our hearts... there must abide some pity for those people who have always felt themselves to be separate from even their… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I am not attracted to writers by style. What style do Dickens, Grass, and Vonnegut have in common? How silly! I am… — John Irving Angry Copy Share Image
Every American should be forced to live outside the United States for a year or two. Americans should be forced to see… — John Irving America Copy Share Image
So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and… — John Irving Brave Copy Share Image
“That was the night he got up and went to the boys' division; perhaps he was looking for his history in the… — John Irving History Copy Share Image
“The situation Larch was thinking of was war, the so-called war in Europe; Larch, and many others, feared that the war wouldn’t… — John Irving Copy Share Image
so my grandmother was not without humanity. and if she wore cocktail dresses when she labored in the garden, they were cocktail… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“There's nothing so confusing as finding out that you don't know someone you thought you knew.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
Half my life is an act of revision; more than half the act is performed with small changes. — John Irving Copy Share Image
I thought some of the stories were neat; I liked some of the liturgy and some of the songs. If you're a… — John Irving Attention Copy Share Image
I'm not a twentieth-century novelist, I'm not modern, and certainly not postmodern. I follow the form of the nineteenth-century novel; that was… — John Irving Copy Share Image
You cannot drive with your eyes in the rear-view mirror… But dignity is difficult to maintain. Stamina requires constant upkeep. Repetition is… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The characters in my novels, from the very first one, are always on some quixotic effort of attempting to control something that… — John Irving Copy Share Image
You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason… — John Irving Book Copy Share Image
More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have… — John Irving Copy Share Image
In the world according to her father, Jenny Garp knew, we must have energy. Her famous grandmother, Jenny Fields, once thought of… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LEARNED IT- IT'S A GIFT. IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT. IF YOU'RE… — John Irving Courage Copy Share Image
“Sigmund Freud was a novelist with a scientific background. He just didn’t know he was a novelist. All those damn psychiatrists after… — John Irving Copy Share Image
Life," Garp wrote, "is sadly not structured like a good old-fashioned novel. Instead an end occurs when those who are meant to… — John Irving Books Copy Share Image
I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until… — 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… — John Irving Friendship Copy Share Image
“In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is… — John Irving Humor Copy Share Image
