John Irving
John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 March 1942
CountryUnited States of America
wrestling tennis musical
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.
father firsts bears
The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.
memories monsters doe
Our memory is a monster; you forget it - it does not.
rhinos bird be-kind
I have a friend who says that reviewers are the tickbirds of the literary rhinoceros-but he is being kind. Tickbirds perform a valuable service to the rhino and the rhino hardly notices the birds.
study vengeance innocent
...every study of the gods, of everyone's gods, is a revelation of vengeance towards the innocent.
notebook writing thinking
I have lots of notebooks around, because one great advantage of writing by hand-in addition to how much it slows you down-is that it makes me write at the speed that I feel I should be composing, rather than faster than I can think, which is what happens to me on any keyboard.
character effort world
The characters in my novels, from the very first one, are always on some quixotic effort of attempting to control something that is uncontrollable - some element of the world that is essentially random and out of control.
serious intention sexuality
Human sexuality makes farcical our most serious intentions.
writing wrestling hard-work
Writing is hard. I learned how to work hard from wrestling, not English courses.
presidential agendas blind
Patriotism is not necessarily defined as blind devotion to a president's particular agenda - and that to dispute a presidential policy is not necessarily anti-American.
mind
No one could have fathomed what a life he'd led, for it was chiefly a life lived in his mind.
heart brain poison
My brain is sending poison to my heart.
children parent moments
Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents' own rule.
waiting doe dramatic
Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic.