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
taken responsibility writing
And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it's my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you.
fashion real term
So, I don't work in terms of real time. I don't work in a timely fashion.
trophies reason used
My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the trophies, you were in it for the wrong reasons.
war objects
The object of war is to survive it.
writing next novel
I never know when I finish the novel I am writing which will be the next novel out of the station.
mean past people
When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language
abortion choices needs
Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no choice, either
abortion choices freedom-of-choice
What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too.
life sentences
A sentence boiled in her, but she could not yet see it clearly.
character stories fans
I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story.
character differences important
The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference.
book simple house
You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't done what I do. Most book reviewers haven't written 11 novels. Many of them haven't written one.
children real world
There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep.
writing reason should
There's no reason you should write any novel quickly.