697 Quotes by John Irving

People are like that... They need to make their own worst experiences universal. It gives them a kind of support.’ And who can blame them? It is just infuriating to argue with someone like that; because of an experience that has denied them their humanity, they go around denying another kind of humanity in others, which is the truth of human variety – it stands alongside our sameness.

There comes a moment in every life when you must let go with your hands – with both hands.

There were some very good books in the backseat of the little Volkswagen; good books were the best protection from evil that Pepe had actually held in his hands – you could not hold faith in Jesus in your hands, not in quite the same way you could hold good books.

When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother’s hand, his fingers could see in the dark.

Real life is too sloppy a model for good fiction,” Juan Diego had said.

And you wouldn’t want to bring her home – at least not to entertain your guests or amuse the children. No, Juan Diego thought – you would want to keep her, all for yourself.

We are formed by what we desire.

Maybe television causes cancer, Garp thinks; but his real irritation is a writer’s irritation: he knows that wherever the TV glows, there sits someone who isn’t reading.

But she drew the line at television. It took no effort to watch – it was infinitely more beneficial to the soul, and to the intelligence, to read or to listen – and what she imagined there was to watch on TV appalled her; she had, of course, only read about it.