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There are always suicides among people who are unable to say what they mean.

John Irving

Nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.
JOHN IRVING

Scary Writing
Our memory is a monster; you forget it – it does not.
JOHN IRVING

Doe Memories Monsters
Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.
JOHN IRVING

Decision Finals Unnecessarily
People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.
JOHN IRVING

People Sound Trying
Keep passing the open windows.
JOHN IRVING

Depression Encouraging Life
I’m not a movie person. They’re collaborations of the worst kind. You must compromise yourself to many interests that are venal and crass and do not have your best interests at heart.
JOHN IRVING

Collaboration Compromise Heart
The main character and the most important character are not always the same person – you have to know the difference.
JOHN IRVING

Character Differences Important
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
Whereas she wished more of the population were better educated, she also believed that education was largely wasted on the majority of the people she met.
JOHN IRVING

Majority People Population
Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.
JOHN IRVING

Hatred Loneliness Self
Nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently.
JOHN IRVING

Bears Practice Promise
…there was no more safety to be found in love than there was to be found in a virus.
JOHN IRVING

Found Safety Viruses
O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You.
JOHN IRVING

Asking Giving Please
It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don’t expect me to change.
JOHN IRVING

Faults Meany Owen Responsibility
Wrestling was my first success, the first thing that confirmed that I could be good at anything. Devoting yourself to wrestling, or tennis, or skiing, or dance, or to a musical instrument is a longing to be disciplined for a purpose.
JOHN IRVING

Musical Tennis Wrestling
Don’t forget this, too: Rumors aren’t interested in the unsensational story; rumors don’t care what’s true.
JOHN IRVING

Care Rumor Stories

There are always suicides among people who are unable to say what they mean.

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There are always suicides among people who are unable to say what they mean.

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