What was even more germane was my study of the history of religion. It was one of the few things in school… — John Irving Education Copy Share Image
I lived five years in the Midwest, and I loved it. The people were so nice. The people were so open. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“That's actually happened?' Ruth asked. 'Everything's happened,' the prostitute said.” — John Irving Copy Share Image
…there was no more safety to be found in love than there was to be found in a virus. — John Irving Copy Share Image
My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I always thought that you could do worse than find yourself dying in the company of a devoted former student. — John Irving Business Copy Share Image
“Did anyone who was in love and was unsatisfied with how he was loved in return ever feel saved?” — John Irving Love Copy Share Image
(Baseball) is a game with a lot of waiting in it; it is a game with increasingly heightened anticipation of increasingly limited… — John Irving Action 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
“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
With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I grew up without a father, who was kept a mystery to me. There was a sense of uprootedness, things being one… — John Irving 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
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 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 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 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 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
“Mother's intentions were always sound, never muddy; I don't imagine that she troubled herself to feel very guilty. But the Rev. Mr.… — John Irving Brooding Copy Share Image
It's magical thinking to imagine that the reason unspeakable things are being perpetrated by younger and younger people is that they've fallen… — John Irving Book Copy Share Image
“Oh, what a nation of moralists the Americans are! With what fervor do they relish bringing their sexual misconduct to light! A… — John Irving Moral outrage Copy Share Image
“It was Nurse Caroline who introduced Homer to young Dr. Harlow, who was in the throes of growing out his bangs; a… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“In Wally’s bedroom Homer marveled at how the world was simultaneously being invented and destroyed. Nothing marvelous about that, Dr. Larch would… — John Irving Copy Share Image
“Did Owen say your grandmother was a banshee?" "He said she was 'wailing like a banshee,'" I explained. Dan got out the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time. — John Irving 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
“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
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 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
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
Lilly was not crazy. She left a serious suicide note. 'Sorry,' said the note. 'Just not big enough. — John Irving Copy Share Image
You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you… — John Irving 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 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
I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to… — John Irving Copy Share Image
As it was, things went from bad to worse, as they often will when amateurs are involved in an activity that they… — John Irving Amateurs Copy Share Image
Don’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it. — John Irving Copy Share Image
“She was convinced that women were as often victims of themselves as they were of men.” — John Irving Victims Copy Share Image
Plot is a map and I begin with it. It is what made me admire the novels of the 19th century; that… — John Irving Copy Share Image
I've always been slow but I'm even slower now. I'm more into the waiting, or I guess I'm more patient about the… — John Irving Copy Share Image
