Quotes from John Irving

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.

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.

I find screenplays easy to write, my novels being very visual. You see what people look like. The physical action is described.

I get up early. I like to read a little before anyone but the dog is up. I also like to read at night, not in bed but just before I go to bed.

I grew up without a father, who was kept a mystery to me. There was a sense of uprootedness, things being one day here and the next day not; a sense anything could happen. Then, all of a sudden, my mother met my stepfather, and her life became happier, and my life changed, my name changed.

I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography.

Imagining something is better than remembering something.

What was even more germane was my study of the history of religion. It was one of the few things in school I was fascinated by.

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.

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.

I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

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.

when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble.

When you legislate personal belief, you're in violation of freedom of religion.

This is what self-centered religion does to us: it allows us to use it to further our own ends.

When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language

I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand.

I believe that, in any novel of mine, the principal objective is the construction of the whole.

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

You don't want to be ungenerous toward people who give you prizes, but it is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel. I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.

More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.

Everybody dies … The thing is, to have a life before we die.

You know, everybody dies. My parents died. Your father died. Everybody dies. I'm going to die too. So will you. The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a life

Life is serious but art is fun!