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John Irving Quotes

American - Novelist | March 2, 1942 - 10

I think there is often a 'what if' proposition that gets me thinking about all my novels.

Me Think Thinking What If I Think

It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them.

People Sympathy Interesting You Who

'Great Expectations' was an important novel in my adolescence. It was very much one of those emblematic novels that made me wish I could write like that. It helped that my models as a writer were dead over a hundred years before I began to write.

Great Me Expectations Wish Important

I suppose I try to look for those things where the world turns on you. It's every automobile accident, every accident at a party, you're having a good time until suddenly you're not.

Good Time Having A Good Time World

I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be able to imagine right through.

Story Explore Right Out Tell Able

If you're still wondering about details - how am I going to get these two to meet, or whatever - when you're writing, you can't pay proper attention to the sentences themselves.

Writing Details Attention You Meet

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.

Angry Small You Back Down Wrestling

There's a lot of ignorance about how long it takes to write a novel. There's a lot of ignorance about how long a novel is in your head before you start to write it.

Ignorance Start Long You Write Head

I never wanted my kids to feel I was more interested in anything I was doing than I was in them.

Feel Doing More Never Anything Kids

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

Family Father Childhood Me Principal

One of the humbling things about having written more than one novel is the sense that every time you begin, that new empty page does not know who you are.

Time You New Page Know More

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.

Hate Others Hatred Him Reason Side

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