697 Quotes by John Irving

MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR. AT LEAST, YOU GET TO READ STUFF THAT'S WRITTEN BY PEOPLE WHO CAN WRITE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR, YOU DON'T NEED ANY SPECIAL TALENT, YOU JUST HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SOMEONE WANTS YOU TO SEE - TO WHAT MAKES SOMEONE ANGRIEST, OR THE MOST EXCITED IN SOME OTHER WAY. IT'S SO EASY!; I THINK THAT'S WHY THERE ARE SO MANY ENGLISH MAJORS!

Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God

Choć już tyle razy przeżyłem mękę i śmierć Chrystusa, nieodmiennie niepokoję się o Jego zmartwychwstanie - jestem przerażony, że w tym roku się to nie uda.

Mr. Wiggin injected a kind of horror-movie element into the Christmas miracle; to the rector, every Bible story was-if properly understood-threatening.

It's long been a point of mine that the freedom of religion, which this country alleges to support, works two ways. We're not only free to practice the religion of our choice, we should be free from having someone else's religion practiced on us.

He was one of those people things came easily to, but he did little to demonstrate that he deserved to be gifted.

...friends were more important than lovers - not least for the fact that friendships generally lasted longer than relationships.

Don't get your balls crossed about it.

As for Jenny, she felt only that women - just like men - should at least be able to make conscious decisions about the course of their lives; if that made her a feminist, she said, then she guessed she was one.