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
philosophy remember owen-meany
Imagining something is better than remembering something.
writing crafts architecture
The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.
writing giving cooking
If you are careful,' Garp wrote, 'if you use good ingredients, and you don't take any shortcuts, then you can usually cook something very good. Sometimes it is the only worthwhile product you can salvage from a day; what you make to eat. With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty of time and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can keep a person who tries hard sane.
believe i-believe behavior
I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.
reading light hands
Homer and Candy passed by the empty and brightly lit dispensary; they peeked into Nurse Angela's empty office. Homer knew better than to peek into the delivery room when the light was on. From the dormitory, they could hear Dr. Larch's reading voice. Although Candy held tightly to his hand, Homer was inclined to hurry - in order not to miss the bedtime story.
art hard-work serious
It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
doe moments enough
. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .
country
We permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it - and reward it in all manner of ways.
fear
We invent what we love and what we fear.
good-friend supportive ifs
but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive.
intellectual belief kind
Never confuse faith, or belief—of any kind—with something even remotely intellectual.
teenage sunday church
I grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn't terribly painful.
moving mean expression
I try to see the whole woman,' Eddie said to Hannah. 'Of course I recognize that she's old, but there are photographs - or the equivalent of photographs in one's imagination of anyone's life. A whole life, I mean. I can picture her when she was much younger than I am - because there are always gestures and expressions that are ingrained, ageless. An old woman doesn't see herself as an old woman, and neither do I. I try to see her her whole life in her. There's something so moving about someone's whole life.
memories book tears
And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.