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
disappointment successful people
Like many successful people he made good use of disappointments - responding to them with energy, with near-frenzied activity, rather than needing to recover from them.
men good-man needs
It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.
jobs memories writing
A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
sound lessons imagine
This is a writer’s lesson: To learn that the sounds that we imagine can be the clearest, loudest sounds of all.
two special half
More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.
religious mean people
Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean––make sure they know what they mean!
character interest situation
I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.
christmas home loss
Ever since the Christmas of 1953, I have felt that the yuletide is a special hell for those families who have suffered any loss or who must admit to any imperfection; the so-called spirit of giving can be as greedy as receiving-Christmas is our time to be aware of what we lack, of who's not home.
writing matter said
It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Before you can write anything, you have to notice something.
sympathy laughter people
I take people very seriously. People are all I take seriously, in fact. Therefore, I have nothing but sympathy for how people behave - and nothing but laughter to console them with.
children believe church
I still believe in getting married in churches and baptizing children. I go through those motions.
mean writing atmosphere
I don't begin a novel or a screenplay until I know the ending. And I don't mean only that I have to know what happens. I mean that I have to hear the actual sentences. I have to know what atmosphere the words convey.
writing stories victim
Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.
order sight perspective
We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.