I grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn’t terribly painful.
JOHN IRVINGI grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn’t terribly painful.
JOHN IRVINGWe permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it – and reward it in all manner of ways.
JOHN IRVINGIt’s not right to hurt or deceive someone who’s already been hurt and deceived.
JOHN IRVINGIt is exhausting to be seventeen and not know who you are.
JOHN IRVINGWhen Jack Burns needed to hold his mother’s hand, his fingers could see in the dark.
JOHN IRVINGHow we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes.
JOHN IRVINGI have no respect for the right-to-life position, though I have every respect for an individual who says, “I could never have that procedure, I could never see a film or read a book about that procedure.” It doesn’t bother me if people feel that way.
JOHN IRVINGMy brain is sending poison to my heart.
JOHN IRVINGThey all settled into being the kind of friends when they heard from each other…. or when they occasionally got together. And when they were not in touch, they did not think of one another.
JOHN IRVING…every study of the gods, of everyone’s gods, is a revelation of vengeance towards the innocent.
JOHN IRVINGI’ve always preferred writing in longhand. I’ve always written first drafts in longhand.
JOHN IRVINGI have always believed that, in a story, if something traumatic or calamitous enough happens to a kid at a formative age, that will make him or her the adult they become.
JOHN IRVINGThe lie, of course, is more interesting.
JOHN IRVINGRituals are comforting; rituals combat loneliness.
JOHN IRVINGWhat a phrase that is: ‘that explains everything!’ I know better than to think anything ‘explains everything’ today.
JOHN IRVINGDon’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it.
JOHN IRVING