697 Quotes by John Irving

You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.

If you care about something you have to protect it – If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is something wrong with you....but there is nothing wrong with me

THAT'S WHAT POWERFUL MEN DO TO THIS COUNTRY - IT'S A BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, BREATHLESS COUNTRY, AND POWERFUL MEN USE IT TO TREAT THEMSELVES TO A THRILL! THEY SAY THEY LOVE IT BUT THEY DON'T MEAN IT. THEY SAY THINGS TO MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR GOOD - THEY MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR MORAL...THE COUNTRY WANTS A SAVIOUR. THE COUNTRY IS A SUCKER FOR POWERFUL MEN WHO LOOK GOOD. WE THINK THEY'RE MORALISTS AND THEN THEY JUST USE US.

...where our desires "come from"; that is a dark, winding road.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

My life is a reading list.

In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases

We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.