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
heart brain poison
My brain is sending poison to my heart.
jobs writing giving
It's my experience that very few writers, young or old, are really seeking advice when they give out their work to be read. They want support; they want someone to say, "Good job."
crazy men happy-woman
A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy
motivation discipline talent
My life as a writer consists of 1/8 talent and 7/8 discipline.
self use doe
This is what self-centered religion does to us: it allows us to use it to further our own ends.
book school shoes
With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time learning what it's like to live in someone else's shoes.
thinking imagination interesting
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.
eye past views
I have learned that the consequences of our past actions are always interesting; I have learned to view the present with a forward-looking eye.
study vengeance innocent
...every study of the gods, of everyone's gods, is a revelation of vengeance towards the innocent.
memories past hair
Because who can describe that look that triggers the memory of loved ones? Who can anticipate the frown, the smile, or the misplaced lock of hair that sends a swift, undeniable signal from the past? Who can ever estimate the power of association, which is always strongest in moments of love and in memories of death?
love eye people
How we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes.
opera soap life-is
Life is an X-rated soap opera.
hero trying alive
Thus we try to keep our heroes alive; hence we remember them.
mother dirty party
so my grandmother was not without humanity. and if she wore cocktail dresses when she labored in the garden, they were cocktail dresses she no longer intended to wear to cocktail parties. even in her rose garden she did not want to appear underdressed. if the dresses got too dirty from gardening, she threw them out. when my mother suggested to her that she might have them cleaned, my grandmother said, "what? and have those people at the cleaners what i was doing in a dress to make it that dirty?" from my grandmother i learned that logic is relative.