697 Quotes by John Irving

A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.

Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can't even remember having met you

This is a writer’s lesson: To learn that the sounds that we imagine can be the clearest, loudest sounds of all.

Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.

Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean––make sure they know what they mean!

And never forget, there is memory.

I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.

I think that was when the headmaster realized he had lost; he realized then that he was finished. Because, what could he do? Was he going to tell us to stop praying? We kept our heads bowed; and we kept praying. Even as awkward as he was, the Rev. Mr. Merrill had made it clear to us that there was no end to praying for Owen Meany.

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.