black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

but writers, Garp knew, were just observers – good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.

John Irving

In 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.
JOHN IRVING

Energy Father Grandmother
A sentence boiled in her, but she could not yet see it clearly.
JOHN IRVING

Boiled Life Sentences
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

Imagination Interesting Thinking
THERE’S NO MONKEY BUSINESS ABOUT THIS ELECTION,’ he told the voters. ‘IF YOU’RE ENOUGH OF AN ASSHOLE TO VOTE FOR NIXON, YOUR DUMB VOTE WILL BE COUNTED––JUST LIKE ANYBODY ELSE!
JOHN IRVING

Dumb Monkeys Voters
You can’t learn everything you need to know legally.
JOHN IRVING

Feet Knows Needs
I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to get the first draft.
JOHN IRVING

Book Long Writing
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.
JOHN IRVING

Judging Superiors Tolerance
There is no straightforward negotiation with a four year old.
JOHN IRVING

Four Negotiation Years
Rituals are comforting; rituals combat loneliness.
JOHN IRVING

Combat Comforting Loneliness
There’s no reason you shouldn’t, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly.
JOHN IRVING

Aware Constantly Reason
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

Love Reason Writing
But I often think that so-called glamorous people are just very busy people.
JOHN IRVING

Busy People Thinking
Everybody dies … The thing is, to have a life before we die.
JOHN IRVING

Die Dies Everybody
Life is serious but art is fun!
JOHN IRVING

Art Fun Life
Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can’t even remember having met you
JOHN IRVING

Memorable Running Thinking
Life,” Garp wrote, “is sadly not structured like a good old-fashioned novel. Instead an end occurs when those who are meant to peter out have petered out. All that is left is memory. But even a nihilist has memory.
JOHN IRVING

Ends Memories Nihilist

but writers, Garp knew, were just observers – good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

but writers, Garp knew, were just observers – good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More John Irving Quotes