KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

John Irving Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by John Irving

Showing 21-30 of 78 Quotes by John Irving

I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo. It was a good debut novel for me to have published. I was 26 or 27 when it was published. I already had a kid and would soon have a second.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


No adult in my family would ever tell me anything about who my father was. I knew from an older cousin - only four years older than I am - everything, or what little I could discover about him.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I grew up around books - my grandmother's house, where I lived as a small child, was full of books. My father was a history teacher, and he loved the Russian novels. There were always books around.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better than something you might find in the newspaper. And I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I had a particular affinity for wrestling, and it did have a lot to do with being small and being combative - and being angry. And when you're small and you don't back down, you get in a lot of fights.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The principal event of my childhood was that no adult in my family would tell me who my father was.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


As many times as I've seen 'The Merchant of Venice,' I always take Shylock's side. For all the hatred that guy is shown, he has a reason to hate in return. He's treated cruelly. And it's tragic that he learns to be intolerant because of what others do to him.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Anybody can do research. The plotting of the novel, writing the ending before you write anything else, which I always do - I don't know that everybody can do that. That's the hard part.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense.

~John Irving

Topics: None

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Novelist

Born: March 2nd, 1942

Links

Find John Irving on Amazon

Related Authors

Richard Bach
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ernest Hemingway
Jack Kerouac
H. P. Lovecraft
Chuck Palahniuk
Gore Vidal
Elie Wiesel

Popular Authors

Deepak Chopra Sigmund Freud Dalai Lama James Madison Groucho Marx Jim Morrison Prince Gloria Steinem

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1882 - Franklin D. Roosevelt

1775 - Walter Savage Landor

1781 - Adelbert Von Chamisso

1846 - F. H. Bradley

1866 - Gelett Burgess

1909 - Saul Alinsky

1912 - Francis Schaeffer

1912 - Barbara Tuchman

1912 - Barbara W. Tuchman

1919 - Fred Korematsu

Birthdays on January 30th
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Brainy Great Jealousy Leadership Legal Memorial Day Positive Trust