There’s nothing as scary as the future.
JOHN IRVINGPeople only ask questions when they’re ready to hear the answers.
More John Irving Quotes
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Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents’ own rule.
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Kids are beautiful, man. And they know much more than grownups think they know. Kids are just perfect people until grownups get their hands on them.
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Keep passing the open windows.
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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 waiting.
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A part of adolescence is feelimg that there’s no one else around who’s enough like youself to understand you.
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All I say is: Let us leave les folles alone; let’s just leave them be. Don’t judge them. You are not superior to them – don’t put them down.
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Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean – make sure they know what they mean!
JOHN IRVING -
I 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.
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He had in abundance youth’s most dangerous qualities: optimism and relentlessness. He would risk everything he had to fly the plane that could carry the bomb within him.
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But I often think that so-called glamorous people are just very busy people.
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Don’t forget this, too: Rumors aren’t interested in the unsensational story; rumors don’t care what’s true.
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No one could have fathomed what a life he’d led, for it was chiefly a life lived in his mind.
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When you legislate personal belief, you’re in violation of freedom of religion.
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No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen…You shouldn’t have a baby if there’s no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
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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






