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
five lived people
I lived five years in the Midwest, and I loved it. The people were so nice. The people were so open.
empty humbling novel page time written
One of the humbling things about having written more than one novel is the sense that every time you begin, that new empty page does not know who you are.
existed orphanages orphans
Do you really want to go back to those times when orphanages existed and when many orphans were not adopted?
imagined novels proudest suppose
I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them,
philosophical wrestling athlete
Ted Seabrooke, my wrestling coach, had a kind of Nietzschean effect on me in terms of not just his estimation of my limited abilities, but his decidedly philosophical stance about how to conduct your life, what you should do to compensate for your limitations. This was essential to me, both as a student - and not a good one - and as a wrestler who was not a natural athlete but who had found something he loved.
belief freedom-of-religion
When you legislate personal belief, you're in violation of freedom of religion.
coincidence young novel
He was too young to know that, in any novel with a reasonable amount of forethought, there were no coincidences.
losing-control feels humiliating
If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital.
intellectual belief kind
Never confuse faith, or belief—of any kind—with something even remotely intellectual.
psychology obsession obsessed
You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
notebook school writing
When I was still in prep school - 14, 15 - I started keeping notebooks, journals. I started writing, almost like landscape drawing or life drawing. I never kept a diary, I never wrote about my day and what happened to me, but I described things.
coward looks appearance
Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.
generosity habit good-habits
Good habits are worth being fanatical about.
umpires surfing novelists
Sigmund Freud was a novelist with a scientific background. He just didn't know he was a novelist. All those damn psychiatrists after him, they didn't know he was a novelist either.