Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean – make sure they know what they mean!
JOHN IRVINGIn the world according to her father, Jenny Garp knew, we must have energy. Her famous grandmother, Jenny Fields, once thought of us as Externals, Vital Organs, Absentees, and Goners. But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.
More John Irving Quotes
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This is what self-centered religion does to us: it allows us to use it to further our own ends.
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.
JOHN IRVING -
People only ask questions when they’re ready to hear the answers.
JOHN IRVING -
Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can’t even remember having met you
JOHN IRVING -
A sentence boiled in her, but she could not yet see it clearly.
JOHN IRVING -
It happens to many teenagers-that moment when you feel full of resentment or distrust for those adults you once loved unquestioningly.
JOHN IRVING -
Rituals are comforting; rituals combat loneliness.
JOHN IRVING -
If we live long enough, we become caricatures of ourselves.
JOHN IRVING -
There is no straightforward negotiation with a four year old.
JOHN IRVING -
But I often think that so-called glamorous people are just very busy people.
JOHN IRVING -
I suppose I’m proudest of my novels for what’s imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography.
JOHN IRVING -
I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you’re going to be in this business, if you’re going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.
JOHN IRVING -
Be serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don’t mean that you can’t also be funny, or have fun, but at the end of the day, stories are about what you lose.
JOHN IRVING -
Keep passing the open windows.
JOHN IRVING -
If pride is a sin … moral pride is the greatest sin.
JOHN IRVING