John Irving

John Winslow Irving (born March 2, 1942) is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (for The Cider House Rules, based on his novel of the same name).

10 Quotes

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.

John Irving

Half my life is an act of revision.

John Irving

You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.

John Irving

You can’t learn everything you need to know legally.

John Irving

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

John Irving

The kind of people claiming to be in communication with God today … they are enough to drive a real Christian crazy!

John Irving

Imagining something is better than remembering something.

John Irving

But we are not known for our ability to follow through on our unearned discoveries. We are top-of-the-water adventurers, who limit our opinions of the icebergs to what we can see.

John Irving

There’s no procrastination on TV.

John Irving

Your memory is a monster; you forget—it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you—and summon them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!

John Irving